ANZAC Day 2011 in Greece - LEST WE FORGET...

Lest we forget....

They shall grow not old....as we that are left grow old

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,

We will remember them,We will remember them...

Australia New Zealand Army Corps

Lest we forget....

The Australian Embassy has invited New Zealanders and Australians and friends of both countries to attend the ANZAC Day Commemorative Celebrations

on

Easter Monday 25 April 2011, 11.00 a.m.

at

The Commonwealth War Cemetery

in

Alimos

(Posidonos Avenue and Ethnarhou Makariou Street)

Let's all be there, as we are every year, to honour the memory of those valiant young men who came to the other side of the world to fight , not just in World War I but in World War II as well, so that we could be free.

 Kali Anastasi - Happy Easter to all our friends!

Hellenic New Zealand Association,

Athens, Greece

ANZAC Day
Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War, and is held every year on April 25th.

The Gallipoli campaign

In 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of an Allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula, under a plan to open the way to the Black Sea for the Allies. The objective was to capture Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire and an ally of Germany
The ANZAC force landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Turkish Army commanded by Ataturk. What had been planned as a bold strike to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stale-mate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915, the Allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian and 2,700 New Zealand soldiers died. News of the landing at Gallipoli made a profound impact on Australians and New Zealanders at home and 25 April quickly became the day on which they remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in war.

Though the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives of capturing Istanbul and knocking Turkey out of the war, the Australian and New Zealand troops' actions during the campaign bequeathed an intangible but powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as an ANZAC Legend became an important part of the national identity in both countries, shaping the ways their citizens viewed both their past and their future.

Read More at Wikipedia

That Icon of English-speaking Expatriates in Athens - The Athens News may soon be gone...do something now!!!

Athens News under threat of closure

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

After nearly 57 years in circulation, the Athens News is under threat of closure. On September 25 it was announced to us by the Lambrakis Press, which has managed this newspaper since it entered the Lambrakis Foundation in 1993, that it will wind up the operation, possibly as early as Friday 3 October.

We are currently engaged in an effort to extend that deadline in order to find new investors to take over the title, archive and books. But it is impossible for any serious investor to carry out due diligence and responsibly and formally register their interest to our current owners within a week. We need an extension of at least a month, in which to make contact with the various potential investors currently reviewing our balance sheet and business plan.

We feel that a move to pull out the rug from under an independent newspaper which has served the thinking public since 1952 should not stand. We are therefore appealing to you, the community we exist to serve, to write an open letter to our publisher, Christos Lambrakis, under copy to us, appealing for an extension and presenting the case, as you see it, for our continued existence under a new owner.

Please send your letters to saveathensnews@gmail.com for publication and forwarding.

Thank you.

John Psaropoulos
Editor
Athens News
3 Christou Lada Street
Athens 102 37
Tel. +30 210 33.33.705
Fax +30 210 33.33.706
www.athensnews.gr

Read More at http://saveathensnews.wordpress.com

Nana Mouskouri's Farewell Concert - A magical evening full of nostalgia, memories and beautiful melodies in the place where it all began - Athens!

How does one describe a feeling? It’s hard unless you are a poet! Well, I would have loved to have been one on Wednesday 23 July as we sat in the ancient Herodes Atticus theatre or the Herodeion as we call it, waiting for Nana Mouskouri to start what was to be her final concert after 50 years of enchanting audiences all over the world.

There, below a gleaming Parthenon set against a brilliant blue sky which slowly acquired dusky hews we watched thousands of people streaming into this magnificent ancient theatre to take their places. It was a wonderful sight - people of all ages happily assembling to pay tribute to one of Greece's best known ambassadors. The younger generation of singers and artists like Maria Farandouri, Nikos Alliagas and Sakis Rouvas were also there to pay tribute to this great lady.

Just after 9 pm it was time for the concert to start and the screens which had been set up above the stage came to life, projecting scenes from Nana's life - pictures from childhood on, with people she loved and who loved her. Symbolic in a way because it was in the outdoor cinema where her father worked as a projectionist, as she told us later, close by in the suburb of Koukaki, that she began dreaming...dreams that would take her around the world and into millions of homes and hearts over the years ahead. One of those homes was ours...

As Nana's voice filled the theatre, memories came flooding back...

Memories of our Mt Victoria home, loving memories of the whole family, Mum, Dad, my sister Pagona and myself, with some of the usual visitors to our house sitting in front of the television to watch her BBC show every week as she sang and danced with her many and varied guests, from George Chakiris to Shari Lewis, Julio Inglesias and Marinella!

Our father adored her and had every disc he could get hold of in his record collection, and my sister and I inherited that adoration. Somehow we managed to pass it on to my 8 year old daughter, so here we all were with our good friend Maria, also from Wellington, sitting in this magnificent ancient theatre below a now illuminated Parthenon waiting for the concert to begin. (July is a month of sad memories in our household... it is the month that our father left this world, so we decided that our 'memorial service' to him and our mother this year would be to go to Nana's farewell concert.)

Those weekly 'concerts' in our living room were in both our thoughts as we sat and listened to this amazing lady give her last performance...

Memories... of my sister Pagona's weekly radio show, 'Kalispera Sas' on 2ZB, for the Greek Youth Association, GOYANZ, also featured heavily in our thoughts. Pagona played a lot of Nana's music on Kalispera Sas and she used to get lots of letters from listeners all over NZ saying how much they enjoyed the music she played...

Memories... of the Victoria University Greek Club and the flowers that we sent to Nana to welcome her on her first visit to New Zealand, even though she didn't come to Wellington on that first trip. She made up for it years later by visiting Wellington - twice!

Memories… of the French Department at Victoria, a lovely old house on Kelburn Parade, now replaced by the Von Zedlitz, and the Language Lab, where we listened to Nana singing 'Plaisir d’Amour',' Rose Blanche de Corfou' and countless other signature tunes – all designed to assist us in becoming more fluent. 
Memories of Jean-Philippe and Claire Jugand, Ms Piper, Dr Vrolyk , Mme Mortelier, and many others who taught us to appreciate the finesse and beauty of the French language through its Literature, Art and Music.

Honoured by Athens , the city she sang about so eloquently, earlier in the day, Nana's first song was indeed "Athina". Obviously moved, the emotion was apparent in her voice, and it brought the house down. The applause was deafening. (The last time I heard this song at a concert was at the Closing Ceremony of Athens' Unforgettable Olympics in 2004! What a year that was for Greece and what a fantastic homecoming for the Olympic Games after over 100 years. It really was very sad that they couldn't find a place for Nana at the Closing Ceremony - as the music for 'Athina' filled the Olympic Stadium that magical night in August of 2004, I remember thinking that if the songs that she made famous and had taken Greece to every corner of the world were there, then she too had every right to be part of the greatest celebration that Greece would ever host!)

As Nana went from song to song, everyone sang along with her. Standing ovation followed standing ovation, with PM Karamanlis standing up several times to applaud her. This was definitely an evening of symbolism, starting with the date. Exactly 24 years ago on the 23 of July of 1984, she gave her first concert ever at the Herodeion, in the presence of then President Konstantinos Karamanlis. 24 years later, another Karamanlis was in the audience to welcome her - his nephew, Prime Minister, Kostas Karamanlis who visited New Zealand last year and enjoyed the visit very much.

Nostalgia and sadness alternated with happiness and joy as she sang everything - from traditional Greek songs to Jazz, from country and western to 'Ta Paidia tou Peiraia' (Never on Sunday) to Beethoven's 9th Symphony-Song of Joy! As Nana tirelessly went through a programme of some of her most well-known and popular songs, songs that had the audience clapping, singing and foot-tapping for most of the three hours that she was on the stage, 'I didn't want to tire you' was her comment when the audience asked for more towards the end of the evening!

Thunderous applause followed every encore – the audience enchanted by her melodies and the memories she so generously shared with us refused to let her go and after coming back on stage several times, Nana thanked us all graciously and the Herodeion filled with the haunting lilt of her final song -'Hartino to Feggaraki' or 'Paper Moon' - the legendary Hadjidakis-Gatsos song that she first recorded in 1960. Nikos Gatsos, the poet, was her mentor, a man who taught her a lot, and told her to always look for the Moon and the Sun - the Sun so that she could always see the truth and the Moon so that she could weave her dreams …those dreams that she shared with us and for which we thank her…

THANK YOU, NANA, FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS!

THANK YOU FOR A TRULY UNFORGETTABLE EVENING.

THANK YOU FOR A WONDERFUL, NOSTALGIC CONCERT FULL OF MAGIC, BEAUTIFUL MUSIC, BRILLIANT SETTING... ONE OF ATHENS' MOST BEAUTIFUL, AND A FITTING TRIBUTE TO GREECE'S SONGBIRD.

THANK YOU FOR THE JOURNEY, THE DREAM AND, ABOVE ALL, THE MEMORIES!!...

Read more about Nana Mouskouri at Wikipedia 

Nana's 1st Concert at the Theatre of Herodes Atticus 23 July 1984