Two brothers, waving blue-and-white Greek flags, recalled their Spartan roots Sunday as they walked in the Greek Independence Day Mid-Atlantic Parade.
The annual procession “keeps our heritage alive,” said George Marafatsos, a member of the Laconian Society of Washington, D.C., descendants of the Spartan warriors chronicled in the new movie “300.”
Marafatsos and his brother, Demetrius, both of Silver Spring, came to the United States four decades ago.
Thousands flocked to Greektown to catch a glimpse of the floats celebrating both Greece?s War of Independence from the Turks, which started March 25, 1821, and the Annunciation of Theotokos, when Greeks believe the Archangel Gabriel told Mary she would bear Jesus.
As they have for the past decade, Georgia and Demetrius Trikoulis watched the parade from the stoop of their Greektown Bakery and Delicatessen.
Georgia Trikoulis, a former principal of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church school, knows specific dates of the revolution, waged after four centuries of Ottoman oppression.
But the day?s religious roots make it and even bigger holiday, said Trikoulis, who left Greece in 1972.
Since 1992, she and her husband have been selling baklava and spinach pies from their shop on Eastern Avenue, the heart of Greektown, where restaurants with Hellenic names advertise seafood, souvlaki and gyros.
A block away, Gayle Economos, a parade organizer, described how Greek mythology served as her childhood fairy tales.
“These are the stories we usually hear on our parents? and grandparents? knees,” said Economos, whose ancestors hail from Macedonia, the land of Alexander the Great.
As energetic steppers and drummers elicited whoops from the crowd outside, Stanley Cavouras scanned the pews of a much quieter St. Nicholas?, removing “reserved” placards left from morning Mass.
Keeping with the day?s melding of government and religion, Greek Orthodox priests sat next to elected officials, including Mayor Sheila Dixon, on a dais in front of the church on Ponca Street.
Andrew Goodman, of Essex, said the sunny day was perfect for a parade that everyone, including non-Greeks like himself, could enjoy.
“I like how everyone is represented,” he said.
