Greek Olympic Society

05/21/2026

Our Columbus community lost a devoted servant of our Greek church 🙏

It is with profound sadness, but with joyous hope in the Resurrection that we have learned of the falling asleep in the Lord of Gus Damopoulos.

Gus was a beloved and steadfast member of our parish family, a faithful steward whose love and devotion to our Cathedral were evident in countless ways. Among his many acts of faithful service, he will especially be remembered for his devoted ministry in the Holy Altar, reverently assisting our clergy and lovingly mentoring and guiding the altar boys entrusted to his care.

We extend our heartfelt sympathies and prayers to his wife Regina and his entire family.

May our loving and merciful God establish his soul in the dwelling place of the saints and may He number him among the righteous.

Memory Eternal!

05/19/2026

Never forget!

🇬🇷 Today we remember the 353,000 innocent Pontian Greeks who lost their lives during one of the darkest chapters in Greek history.

We honour their memory, their strength, their faith, and the generations that carried their culture and identity through unimaginable suffering. 🕊️

The Pontian Greek Genocide must never be forgotten.

“A people without memory have no future.”

Αθάνατοι. Eternal memory. ❤️🖤

GenocideRemembrance Pontos GreekCulture 19May GreekHeritage Hellenism Pontian Greece RememberHistory

05/01/2026

1st May in Greece 🇬🇷🌸🌺🌷🌻🌼💮🪷🪻🌼🌷🌺🌸🌹

A day to celebrate spring and nature,
where flowers turn into tradition
the beautiful stefáni wreath.

Simple moments…
with timeless meaning.

GreekCulture SpringInGreece

04/29/2026

The euro coin in your pocket is basically a time traveller

Most people never notice it…

But the Greek 1 euro coin carries a design linked to Athens more than 2,500 years ago. 😳

Back in ancient Greece, Athens stamped its coins with an owl.

Not as decoration — but as identity.

The owl symbolized Athena, representing:

👉 Wisdom
👉 Protection
👉 The power of the city itself

Those coins once moved through markets where philosophers debated, ships were built, and democracy was taking shape in real time.

Fast forward to today.

When Greece adopted the euro, it could have chosen something modern.

Instead…

It brought the owl back. 🦉

Same symbol.
Same meaning.
New era.

So when you hold a Greek 1 euro coin, you’re not just holding money.

You’re holding a design that survived empires, wars, language changes, and thousands of years of history.

Still watching quietly from the metal… like it never left. ✨

04/27/2026

A public school in Wilmington, Delaware is teaching math, biology, and science entirely in Greek, and the results are turning heads. Odyssey Charter School, founded 25 years ago by Greek diaspora members, now serves 2,500 students, with 98 percent of them having no Greek heritage whatsoever. Over 700 of those students are enrolled in the school's Greek-language program, and some have already earned B1 and B2 language certifications.

The school runs two tracks: one with daily Greek instruction, and an immersion program where half the curriculum, including math and science classes, is delivered entirely in Greek. Educators say the approach builds stronger bilingualism, sharper critical thinking, and better classroom focus, and the program has attracted consistent funding and community support.

The student body recently traveled to Greece as part of an exchange with Pierce College in Athens, visiting the Acropolis, Sounio, and Mycenae. Ten of the visiting students met with Greece's education minister and addressed him in Greek. Thirteen-year-old Evan Nicholson told reporters that knowing Greek helps him understand concepts across mathematics and biology, since so much scientific vocabulary has Greek roots. Fourteen-year-old Mandika said she initially enrolled partly at her parents' encouragement but now values the language for its history and depth.

What started as a diaspora-driven community project has grown into one of the more unusual public schools in the United States, built around a language that most of its students had no prior connection to before walking through its doors.

04/22/2026

First time visit to San Francisco 🇬🇷

04/18/2026

04/18/2026

🇺🇸❤️🇬🇷

Surge in Greek Citizenship Applications Among Diaspora, Especially in the US

A notable wave of Greeks abroad, particularly in the United States, is turning back to their ancestral roots by applying for Greek citizenship, turning what was once a scattered trickle of paperwork into a steady stream of dual‑passport seekers. Behind the rise are a mix of emotional, practical, and political reasons, from reconnecting with family heritage to securing broader mobility across Europe and responding to concerns about life in their current countries.

For many in the Greek‑American community, the decision to claim Greek citizenship is less about a one‑off trip home and more about building a long‑term safety net: a second passport that opens Schengen‑area travel, easier access to education and healthcare in Greece, and potential fallback options if home‑country politics or economic conditions worsen. Data over recent years already showed double‑digit jumps in applications from the US, and 2025–2026 has only deepened that trend as more Americans of Greek descent research ancestry, scan old municipal records, and navigate the citizenship‑by‑descent process.

04/16/2026

No soup for you! 🇬🇷🍜🇹🇷

Greece is stepping up its gastronomic diplomacy by pushing for UNESCO recognition of patsas, its beloved tripe soup, sparking a heated debate with Turkey over the dish’s origins. Labeled by many as a quintessential late‑night hangover cure in Thessaloniki and beyond, patsas is now at the center of a soft‑power battle rooted in shared Ottoman and Balkan food traditions.

A Greek restaurateur from Thessaloniki has spearheaded a dossier to submit patsas as a unique expression of local food culture, aiming first for inclusion in Greece’s national inventory and then for a place on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

Greek advocates argue that the way patsas is prepared and consumed in the city—often late at night, in bustling street‑food scenes—reflects a distinct social tradition that deserves protection.
Turkish voices strongly contest that narrative, pointing to centuries‑old Ottoman records and popular culinary histories that describe işkembe çorbası as a staple of Turkish street food. They emphasize that the name “patsas” itself comes from the Turkish word paça, traditionally used for sheep’s trotters, and view the UNESCO move as an attempt to rebrand a shared dish as purely Greek.

The quarrel over patsas mirrors older disputes about yogurt, baklava, and other foods that cross borders, revealing how cuisine can become a battleground for national identity. While both sides acknowledge overlapping culinary roots, the UNESCO bid has turned a humble bowl of tripe soup into a symbol of a much larger contest over heritage, memory, and who gets to claim the flavours of the Eastern Mediterranean.