Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Wilmington Greek Festival's founding father recalls humble beginnings

Megan Pauly
/
Delaware Public Media
Co-founder of the Wilmington Greek Festival Gerasimos Giannatos (left) and Byzantine chanter Anastasis Lazaridis (right) sit outside of the Greek Orthodox Church Tuesday.

Spanakopita, mousaka, dolmades and more are available in abundance this week in Wilmington as part of the city’s annual Greek Festival.

 

Gerasimos (Gerry) Giannatos helped started the Greek festival in 1977. He says it started out with only two tables of food.

He came to Wilmington in 1948 from Cephalonia, an island on the Ionian Sea about 30 miles west of mainland Greece and has been highly involved with the Greek community in Delaware ever since.

 

He was initially in the meat business in Wilmington, but then got into the supermarket business.

 

He says one of the main functions of the festival –which started on a much smaller scale – is to raise money for the only Greek Orthodox Church in Delaware. Through volunteer work, he and others helped pay off the $450,000 mortgage on the church’s community center 20 years ago.

 

“So I’m proud of what I have done," Giannatos said. "Everybody is happy, we’ve got a lot of people working, we’ve bot a lot of families working, and the old families are dying out so we’re trying to get some young people now.”

 

Giannatos and two others started the Greek festival in 1977. He’s the only founding member of the festival still living. He says the festival had humble beginnings.

Credit Megan Pauly / Delaware Public Media
/
Delaware Public Media
So much food is served in the annual Wilmington Greek Festival that preparation starts months in advance.

“We had two tables over there one Sunday, and we made a little pastries and some sandwiches, that’s how we started," he said. "The we got a little better, and a little better and that’s how we came up ot this beautiful job. We’re doing a beautiful job.”

Now, the festival serves so much food they start preparing six months in advance.

Now 85 and fighting lung cancer, Gerry’s work at the festival is limited, but his wife was busy inside serving food.

On Tuesday afternoon he was sitting outside with his friend Anastasis Lazaridis, retired University of Delaware professor and Byzantine chanter in the church.

“My interest here is just to help them, ok. I am second hand, but my first hand - in the church - is the chant," Lazaridis said.

The Wilmington Greek Festival is in its 41styear, with festivities starting at 11 a.m. daily. Food is served both for lunch and dinner through Saturday evening, along with music and entertainment.