DOVER — The Greek community opened the doors to the Hellenic Center in Dover this weekend and welcomed everyone in to share their history, music, dancing, food and their unsurpassed pastry at the annual Greek Heritage Festival.

Hosted by the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, the festival celebrated traditions that have bonded families together since they arrived in Dover in the early 20th century, and that many hope will unite people of Greek heritage for years to come.

“We're a small church, we have about 200 families,” said festival volunteer John Lampros, as he watched hundreds of church members and visitors feasting on Greek specialties such as spanakopita, souvlaki and roast lamb. A pastry table, filled with trays of baklava, finikia, and other traditional treats stretched across one end of the room.

Lampros said Greek immigrants started arriving in New Hampshire at the start of the 20th century.

“A lot of people came to Dover and worked in the mills downtown,” he said, adding his grandfather opened a restaurant in town the 1950s.

The church, which was established in 1906, was the hub of the Greek neighborhood. And Greek school, an after-school program where kids studied Greek language three days a week helped preserve a strong sense of ethnic identity.

After more than 100 years, Dover's Greek families are still a close-knit community, but Lampros acknowledged that time stretches the ties to Greek heritage a little thinner with each new generation.

“We want to keep the culture strong,” he said adding the Greek Festival is part of that effort.

For George Papadopoulos, 91, who grew up in Dover, Greek culture was always at the center of life. Papadopoulos said that for many in his generation, it was more important to go to Greek school in the afternoon than to public school in the morning.

“In my house, the English language stayed outside the door,” he said.

Papadopoulos said people worked hard to build new lives in New Hampshire, but they always rallied together and helped one another.

“I'm a devoted Greek, that was the way I was brought up,” he said. “I love my language, and I love my religion.”

A lot of people in Dover share Papadopoulos' sense of Greek pride. This is, after all, the culture whose short list of contributions to western civilization include democracy, philosophy, astronomy, medicine, history, geometry and the Olympics.

Papadopolous is also a World War II vet and a member of what many Americans now consider the country's greatest generation.

And he's also the father-in-law of Dennis Kostis whose family came to the United States when he was 8.

“As a result, I had the best of both worlds,” said Kostis, who already spoke better Greek than the teachers in Greek school. And at 8, adapting to a new way of life comes easy.

“We came and the next year, I was playing in Little League,” he said.

Kostis said he worries a little about younger generations maintaining their ties to the Greek Orthodox faith.

“But Greek culture is as strong as it's ever been,” he said.

And almost as if they were trying to prove that point, more than a dozen members of G.O.Y.A., Greek Orthodox Youth of America, who had been working in the kitchen for the first part of the festival, suddenly appeared on the dance floor. With their aprons still on, they circled the floor as if they had been dancing together since about the time they started walking.

Kostis said that for people to keep their culture, they need to have deep enough roots and there are plenty of Greek roots in Dover.

“For young people, it's their heritage, and that's not going to die,” he said.

btaormina@newstote