Easter Monday, April 6, the streets of Athens wore a look of extraordinary animation. All the public buildings were draped in bunting; multicolored streamers floated in the wind; green wreaths decked in the house-fronts. The two letters 'O.A.', the Greek initials of the Olympic games, and the two dates, B.C. 776, A.D. 1896, indicated their ancient past and their present renaissance. At two o'clock in the afternoon the crowd began to throng the Stadion and to take possession of the seats. It was a joyous and motley concourse. The skirts and braided jackets of the palikars contrasted with the somber and ugly European habiliments. The women used large paper fans to shield them from the sun, parasols, which would have obstructed the view, being prohibited." - Baron Pierre de Coubertin