Welcome New User!

Registered Members
Please Login

Member ID:
Password:

Not a member?
 Click here for free registration.

The Chios Society of the Greater Washington, DC Area invites you to the 67th Annual Convention of the Chios Societies of the Americas & Canada from Friday October 11th to Sunday October 13th, 2024 in Washington, DC! Tickets to all events will be on sale soon at DCGreeks.com! Click here for details!
St. George Greek Orthodox Church of Bethesda, MD invites you to our Greek Festival 2024 on Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19, 2024 at St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Bethesda, MD. Click here for details!
St. Katherine presents The Path of the Sacred Passion, a Byzantine Music Concert featuring Stelios Kontakiotis, Spiros Perivolaris, and Georgios Theodoridis on Saturday, 4/20/24, inside St. Katherine's Greek Orthodox Church in Falls Church, VA. General Admission tickets now on sale at DCGreeks.com!
International Powerhouse Tenor & Classical-Crossover Artist MARIO FRANGOULIS performs live in Washington, DC on Friday, April 12, 2024 at Warner Theatre, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the American Hellenic Institute. Click here for details!
What's New @ DCGreeks.com
03/12Tickets are now on sale for POLIS - The Queen of Cities: A Musical Tribute to the Fall of Constantinople on May 10, 2024 at Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Washington, DC!
03/11Tickets are now on sale for The Path of the Sacred Passion: A Byzantine Music Concert on April 20, 2024 at St. Katherine's in Falls Church, VA!
03/04Tickets are now on sale for Midwest Greeks 2024 from May 17-19, 2024 in Cleveland, OH!
02/24New Event: Chios Societies of the Americas & Canada 67th Annual Convention from October 11-13, 2024, in Washington, DC!
02/17New Event: St. George's Greek Festival 2024 on 5/18/24 & 5/19/24 in Bethesda, MD
02/07New Event: AHI 50th Anniversary Gala Weekend, April 12-13, 2024, in Washington, DC, featuring Mario Frangoulis in Concert and Hellenic Heritage Achievement and National Public Service Awards Dinner
01/15Tickets are now on sale for DCGreeks.com Greek Heritage Night with the Washington Wizards 2024 on 4/2/24 as they take on Giannis and Thanasis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks!
01/14Tickets are now on sale for Antypas Live in DC with Prodromos & Evgenia on 4/5/24 at Karma DC Live Music Venue in Washington, DC!
DCGreeks.com
Upcoming Events
FriSatSunMonTueWedThu

29

30

31

1

2

3

4

Join Greeks and Philhellenes from over the Midwest and beyond from 5/17/24 - 5/19/24 in Cleveland, OH for three days of parties at the first annual Midwest Greeks event!  Ticket packages are now on sale exclusively at DCGreeks.com! Click here for details!

Out of Town is In Bounds

November 22, 2004

YAL Washington, DC Weekend and Thanksgiving weekend highlight what’s unique about the Greek-American Community in DC and other communities around the country. Greek-Americans are one of the few ethnic-American groups that literally lives or dies by annual pilgrimages to other parts of the country to meet people. Almost every Greek-American, particularly those that are single, thinks that their community is too small to meet anyone. If you doubt that statement, see how many people from larger Greek communities like Chicago, New York, or Boston came to YAL Weekend hoping to meet someone. (Unfortunately sometimes perception becomes reality even in a place where you’re tripping over Greeks at every corner.) This phenomenon is particularly amplified in DC because it is such a transient place. So many Greek-Americans come here for work or school that on a weekend like Thanksgiving they are very likely to be going back home. It works in reverse as well, with all the young Greeks who are actually from here, but have gone away to school, coming back for long weekends as well.

Regional and National conventions like YAL Washington, DC Weekend exist to benefit and as such depend on the out-of-towners. For those of us who were from DC we couldn’t really keep up with the pace of non-stop events from Thursday night to Monday afternoon. Living in the host city of one of these conferences helps the locals in terms of not having to spend money on airfare and lodging and not having to pack four to five outfits (and that’s if you’re a guy), and have to share a hotel room with one or two of your closest or not-so-closest Greek friends. The disadvantage to being home for one of these weekends is the temptation, but more often the requirement to live your secular non-Greek life. On Sunday night of YAL Weekend for example, noticeably absent was the DC/Baltimore crowd, most of whom decided it wasn’t worth it to come out to an event that optimistically would start at 10:30 due to Greek time, when they’d have to be up to go to work the next morning. The year before when Monday was Veterans Day and a day off for many, the Sunday night event was packed. Sometimes its almost worth the extra time and expense to go away for one of these conferences because your committed to leaving the non-Greek world behind and just enjoying yourself and taking full advantage of every event.

Thanksgiving weekend in DC, particularly with the Laconian Dance, makes it seem that the Greek young adult population in DC has doubled. You get the college kids returning and those who have family in the area but have gone off to other places for work after school. The Laconian Dance is unique in who it attracts. Those young adults who would never see themselves at a Greek Night or feel that they are too old to go to Greek Nights will still come to the Laconian Dance because they’ve been coming to it for years. Those who might go to Greek Nights but who couldn’t tell you what YAL stands for also come to the Laconian Dance for the same reason. (What the Laconian Dance needs more of is the people who stay in town who weren’t able to go home and be with their families for Thanksgiving.) And after spending all of Thanksgiving Day with their families, many of these young adults are ready and willing to meet anyone new. Thus many long distance relationships start at the Laconian Dance, particularly among those who return to the area from suffering from Greek community withdrawal. If the visitor is to return from college in less than month, the maneuvering becomes how to keep them interested throughout exams to see Christmas and New Years Eve. Because New Year’s Eve, if it happens to fall close enough to a weekend to make it feasible, is the next traveling holiday that brings people back to DC.

We wish everyone who is traveling to or from DC or anywhere else this week a happy and safe trip. If you’re in DC this weekend, drop by the Laconian Dance on Friday night and check our Events Calendar to see if something else pops up.


 

Read past feature articles