For the first time this month, a Freemasons lodge in Australia is set to hold an event honouring a different community.

The Gregorios Lodge is set to host commemorations for Oxi Day, marking 78 years since General Metaxas said ‘Oxi’ to Mussolini’s ultimatum to enter Greece in 1940.
Taking place on Tuesday 30 October, two days after the official day, the event will take place at their Masonic Centre in Oakleigh.

The decision to do so, is a chance to maintain contact with the important historical events of the past and an attempt to bring younger generations of Freemasons closer to their roots.
“It’s basically the first time we’ve had an officially approved ceremony to commemorate anything but ANZAC within freemasonry in Victoria, so it’s a bit of a first for our craft and first for our lodge, and being a Greek lodge we thought it would be nice to do,” Master of the Lodge, Jim Karabatsos told Neos Kosmos.

He went on to point out how there are elements of freemasonry within Greece’s modern history.

“A lot of Greek history in the recent times, and by recent I mean from the time of the Turkish invasion onward, has been shaped by Masonic ideals. So while it wasn’t clearly Masonic, a lot of the behind-the-scenes organisation and support were certainly put together by people who were aware of and connected to freemasonry,” he said.

“For example, the Filiki Eteria. Definitely not a lodge, but the people who structured it did so along the Masonic lines. Things like understanding how to organise and keep things under control or having support from overseas and so on.”