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Who’s Marching in Philadelphia’s 2026 Greek Independence Day Parade

By

Cosmos Philly Staff
Greek Independence Day Parade, Philadelphia 2025.

A parade order is usually just a logistical document. This one reads more like a community census.

The final lineup for Philadelphia’s 2026 Greek Independence Day Parade maps out a Greek-American world that stretches across parishes, schools, student groups, societies, civic organizations, and ceremonial participants from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. In a community that is often experienced parish by parish or society by society, the parade offers one of the rare moments when all of those layers appear together in public.

The structure of the procession itself says a lot. The opening section begins with the Veterans of Foreign Wars Eleftheria Post #6633, religious icons, symbolic banners, and the Federation banner, establishing from the start that the event is built around memory, faith, and public representation.

The dignitaries section follows as one group, led by the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey and joined by past presidents of the Federation of Hellenic-American Societies, grand marshals, the Eleftheria Medal recipient, public officials, AHEPA and Daughters officers, federation leadership, and Odyssey School. It is a reminder that the parade is not only celebratory but institutional, bringing together the leadership structures that have long shaped Greek-American life in the region.

The broadest section is the church participation, and it gives the clearest sense of the event’s geographic reach. Parishes are coming not only from Philadelphia and its suburbs, but from South Jersey, Delaware, the Lehigh Valley, and farther out, including Cherry Hill, Egg Harbor, Vineland, Wilmington, Bethlehem, Union, Easton, Trenton, Wildwood, Stroudsburg, Reading, Blandon, Jeffersonville, Upper Darby, and Atlantic City. For a few hours, communities that normally gather in separate local settings enter the same public space and are seen as part of a larger whole.

The roster of societies and organizations shows another layer of that world. The order includes the Society of Epirotes of Philadelphia, the United Chios Society “O Korais,” the Corthian Andros Society of New Jersey, the Evrytanian Society, the Velvendinon Society, the Hellenic University Club, the Hellenic Medical Society, the Greek American Heritage Society of Philadelphia, and several Pan-Macedonian groups.

The Evzones are listed as part of that section as well, referring to the ceremonial soldiers of Greece’s Presidential Guard, whose presence brings a direct visual link to the national history being commemorated. Together, these groups reflect the older regional, ancestral, and civic ties that still give Greek-American public life much of its shape.

The younger generation is also visibly part of the day. Alongside Odyssey School are student organizations from Temple, Villanova, Drexel, Penn, Saint Joseph’s, the University of Delaware, West Chester, Rutgers, Penn State, and Intercollegiate Hellenic Society Global, as well as the Federation of Hellenic Student Societies of Philadelphia and the National Hellenic Student Association. That matters because it shifts the meaning of the day. The event is not only about inherited memory, but about who is still choosing to carry it forward.

Further down, the lineup moves through Pan Icarian, Pontian, Nafpaktian, Cypriot, and AHEPA family groups before ending in dance performances. There is also a scheduled stop for the American and Greek national anthems and invocation, underscoring the parade’s public character.

It is one of the few moments each year when much of the community is visible at once.

Full Parade Order

Below is the final parade order as provided by organizers.

  1. Veterans of Foreign Wars, Eleftheria Post #6633
  2. Icon of Annunciation, Annunciation Elkins Park
  3. Icon of Annunciation, Evangelismos Theotokos
  4. Agia Lavra / Palaion Patron Germanos, Peloponnesian Society
  5. Banner of Panagia Soumela
  6. Federation Banner
  7. Greek Orthodox Metropolis of NJ
  8. Grand Marshals – FHAS Past Presidents
  9. Eleftheria Medal Recipient – Steve Kontos
  10. Honorary Marshals
  11. Federal/State/City officials
  12. AHEPA/Daugthers Supreme/District Officers
  13. Federation Officers/Board Members
  14. Odyssey School
  15. Annunciation / Evangelismos, Elkins Park, PA
  16. St. Thomas, Cherry Hill, NJ
  17. Holy Trinity, Egg Harbor, NJ
  18. Evangelismos of Theotokos, Philadelphia, PA
  19. St. George, Media, PA
  20. Academy of Aristoteli at St. George
  21. St. Anthony, Vineland, NJ
  22. St. Luke, Broomall, PA
  23. Annunciation, Lancaster, PA
  24. St. Barbara, Toms River, NJ
  25. Holy Trinity Cathedral, Wilmington, DE
  26. St. Nicholas Cathedral, Bethlehem, PA
  27. St. George, Piscataway, NJ
  28. St. Demetrios, Union, NJ
  29. Evangelismos tis Theotokou, Easton, PA
  30. St. George, Trenton, NJ
  31. St. Demetrios, Wildwood, NJ
  32. St. Anna, Trenton / Flemington, NJ
  33. Holy Cross, Stroudsburg, PA
  34. Saints Constantine and Helen Church, Reading, PA
  35. St. Mathew, Blandon, PA
  36. St. George Cathedral, Philadelphia, PA
  37. St. Sophia, Jeffersonville, PA
  38. St. Demetrios, Upper Darby, PA
  39. Philadelphia Police & Fire Fife and Drum Corps
  40. Philadelphia Police Highway Patrol
  41. Philly Fife and Drum Company
  42. St. Nicholas, Atlantic City, NJ
  43. USA 250th Anniversary Independence
  44. Evzones, Hellenic Republic Presidential Guard
  45. Young Leaders Committee of the Federation
  46. Society of Epirotes of Philadelphia, The Omonia Brotherhood of Demati Society
  47. United Chios Society “O Korais” Chapter
  48. Corthian Andros Society of NJ
  49. Evrytanian Society
  50. Velvendinon Society
  51. Hellenic University Club
  52. Hellenic Medical Society
  53. Greek American Heritage Society of Philadelphia
  54. Pan Macedonian Society “Pavlos Melas”
  55. Pan Macedonian Society “Amalia”
  56. Pan Macedonian Society “Youth of Alexander”
  57. National Hellenic Student Association
  58. Federation of Hellenic Student Societies of Philadelphia
  59. Temple Hellenic Student Society
  60. Villanova University Hellenic Society
  61. Drexel University Student Organization
  62. University of Pennsylvania Students Organization
  63. Saint Joseph’s University Hellenic Students
  64. Hellenic Student Association, University of Delaware
  65. West Chester University Students Organization
  66. Hellenic Student Association of Rutgers University
  67. Penn State Hellenic Student Association
  68. Intercollegiate Hellenic Society Global
  69. Pan Icarian Brotherhood of America, Atheras Chapter
  70. Hellenic Dancers of NJ
  71. Pontian Society, Akritai Chapter
  72. Nafpaktian and Perihora Society
  73. Cyprus Brotherhood of Philadelphia
  74. Camden Chapter #69 AHEPA
  75. Hercules Spartan #26 AHEPA
  76. Daughters of Penelope, Upper Darby
  77. Thermopylae Chapter AHEPA
  78. Chester-Delco AHEPA
  79. Delaware Valley Hellenic American Police Officers
  80. Asia Minor Society
  81. Peloponnesian Society
  82. Pieria Society
  83. Ladies Pieria Society
  84. Cefalonian and Ithican Society of Delaware Valley
  85. Cretans of Delaware Valley, Knossos Chapter
  86. Woodland String Band, Mummers

Dance Performances

  1. Pan Macedonian
  2. Pontian Society
  3. St. Thomas GOC, MDF Winner
  4. St. Luke GOC – MDF Winner

More from the celebration

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