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October 2026
Festival by the rapids anchors a growing Greek parish in LaSalle
(GIF) article photo
By Dominique Speri
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
By the water's edge at Parc des Rapides, under white tents pitched among
the trees, the sounds of a Greek village square carried across LaSalle
for three days in mid-July. Dancers in embroidered vests and traditional
costume circled the open square hand in hand, smoke rose from long
charcoal grills lined with skewers, and families filled rows of tables
on the grass from Friday evening until Sunday night. Behind the music
and the souvlaki stood the story that gave the weekend its weight, one
that continues to unfold this autumn: a small parish growing steadily
younger, a volunteer corps that labours for months, and a summer
festival that has become one of the surest expressions of Hellenic
identity in the southwest of the island of Montreal.
The annual festival of the Saint Dionysios of Aegina parish, held July
10 to 12 with free admission, falls on the second weekend of July each
year and exists to sustain the church itself. "Every dollar we collect
from this festival comes directly to the church, and we have great need.
We are a small church here on the edge of Montreal, in LaSalle," said
Father Spyridon, the parish priest, speaking in Greek for the interview.
Five years into his ministry there, he described a congregation in
visible renewal. Services, sermons and the liturgy are offered in both
Greek and English, and the response has followed. "The children have
answered with great zeal and love. We can say that about 50 per cent of
the congregation now is young people under 40, and families," he said.
The parish also runs a youth group on Monday evenings along with
catechism and Bible study classes during the week.
Longtime parishioners measure the change against decades. "I have been
close to this church for 40 years. I have never seen so many
children," said Kostas, who served 15 years as parish president and
now sits as vice-president. At the grills, where volunteers had passed
the 600 souvlaki mark by Saturday, the marinade remains a secret
entrusted to a single parishioner who prepares it behind a locked
door. The tzatziki, salads and lemon and oil dressing are all made on
site by volunteers, among them a griller of Zakynthian origin who has
stood at the spits for 19 years.
Parish president Dimitri Giannenas, in his fifth year leading the
council, said preparations begin six months ahead, with work every month
from January. Asked for the souvlaki recipe, he named a different
ingredient. "The recipe is love. The volunteers who work so hard, for
months, and I mean months, to prepare it," he said. "I am glad to help
my community. I am doing something bigger than myself." He said the park
setting, with its lawns and the river in front, draws Greeks from across
the Montreal region along with friends of Italian, English and French
background who come for the pastries, the souvlaki and the dancing.
The weekend also drew figures from the wider diaspora. "We must always
support Hellenism wherever we find ourselves," said Halatsis, a former
president of the Hellenic Congress of Canada, who congratulated the
president and council on the organization. Father Andreas, who served
the parish for many years, returned among the faithful, and Kyriakos
Polymenakos, president of the regional council of the Hellenic
Community of Greater Montreal, attended as a guest, noting a summer
circuit that continued with the community's own festivals in Laval and
Park Extension in August.
The next edition at Parc des Rapides will mark the festival's 45th year.
Giannenas said the council begins organizing it in October.
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