Athens welcomed the New Year with a fireworks display on the stroke of midnight following a day of celebratory events in central Athens. Hundreds of people ignored the bitter cold and joined the crowd that had gathered in the neighborhood of Thisio where the municipality of Athens was hosting music gigs to bid farewell to 2016 and welcome the New Year. 

To the Most Reverend Hierarchs, the Reverend Priests and Deacons, the Monks and Nuns, the Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils of the Greek Orthodox Communities, the Distinguished Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Day, Afternoon, and Church Schools, the Philoptochos Sisterhoods, the Youth, the Hellenic Organizations, and the entire Greek Orthodox Family in America

His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America penned the following text discussing the Feast of Saint Basil and the New Year. The Greek Orthodox Archbishop's writing in full, can be read below.