PRESS RELEASE OF 22nd OF DECEMBER 2020 (Winter Solstice Celebration)
On the 22nd/12/2020 the White Celebration of the Winter Solstice was held online.
The event was attended by the brothers of the Lodges of Athens and the provinces of our Grand Lodge, invited friends and their relatives, as well as brothers belonging to domestic and foreign friendly Masonic Orders, represented by their delegates or their surrogates.
While waiting for the beginning of the Celebration, snapshots of the United Grand Lodge’s actions were projected with a soundtrack suitable for the season and the occasion. After the hearing of the Grand Lodge’s anthem, the Ad-joint Grand Master, Very Respectable br. Christoforos Perdikouris took the floor, who in an a brief and original way referred to Freemasonry, its origins, character and its social function, as well as on the White Celebrations and their meaning.
Then the Most Worshipful Grand Master dearest br. Panagiotis Thalassis, greeted all participants and then focused on the specifics of the passing year and current festive days due to the ongoing pandemic, but also to the changes of the practices and the considerations that it brought to everyday life, while expressing the hope that the allegory of the ascending course of the Sun, beginning at the Winter Solstice, will mark our corresponding path towards progress, cooperation, love, spirituality and humanity. Finally, he thanked the brothers responsible for the organization of the Celebration, awarding them with the major praise of our Grand Lodge.
This was followed by the projection of an animated video, the creation of which was made by brothers of our Grand Lodge, and which referred to the symbolisms of the Winter Solstice and their relation to their respective celebrations of nowadays.
The floor was then given to the Grand Masters of the attending friendly native Masonic forces, to the representatives of the foreign Grand Lodges, and also to the guest of the Grand Lodge, the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Greece, Most Illustrious br. Iordanis Poulkouras, who all addressed their greetings and messages and congratulated for the organization of the whole event.
The event was concluded in a spirit of fraternal love, with the customary toasts and wishes, both due to the holidays and the new year coming but also as an anticipation for a brief passage of the pandemic and the possibility of the resuming our actual, live Masonic meetings.
For the convenience of the foreign brothers, the video had English subtitles while the speeches and greetings were translated in English too.
Finally, the event was concluded with the hearing of the Greek National Anthem while waving in the background the Greek flag.
FROM THE GRAND SECRETARY
