Cherry Hill, NJ – Greek pride shined on Thursday as parishioners of St. Thomas gathered for Oxi day. Led by father Emmanuel Pratsinakis, the Greek school students of St. Thomas, recited poems and sang songs about Greece during WWII. Greece had rejected the ultimatum from Benito Mussolini to Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas.
Il Duce demanded that Metaxas allow the Italian army free passage to enter and occupy strategic sites in Greece unopposed. Faced with this demand, Metaxas delivered an unequivocal response in French, the diplomatic language of the day, “Alors, c’est la guerre.” This brief phrase, “Then, it is war,” was quickly transmuted into the laconic “Oxi” the Greek for no, by the citizens of Athens.