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Celebrations of the churches |
One of the most traditional customs of Santorini is the celebrations of the churches (in Greek “Panigiri”), which are organized to celebrate the Name Day of a Saint and take place in the churches. In most of the cases (even if the church belongs to the State), individuals cover the expensed of the celebration. Nowadays, the celebration takes place on same the day of the Name Day of the Saint, just after the Mass.
The celebration is being prepared one or two days in advance. If the church belongs to the municipality, the women of the village take care of the preparations, but if it privately owned, the owners undertake that task. After the cleaning-up of the church, they decorate the icons with flowers. The most beautiful flowers are used for the decoration of the main icon of the Saint of the church. In some churches, the street leading to the church is decorated by rosemary branches.
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Santorini Ifestia Festival |
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Ifestia Festival (meaning in Greek “The volcano festival”) take place in Mid August for 2-3 days and is organized by the Municipality of Thira. This event includes figurative volcano explosion with fireworks, traditional music and dancing, local custom reproductions, food and other special shows. |
The Assumption is celebrated on August 15 and every year all over Greece many celebrations and events are taking place in the Orthodox churches. In Santorini, usually every village has a church dedicated on the Virgin Mary and on this day the owners of the church or the local governors organize a big celebration.
In the church “Panagia”, located inside the castle of Pyrgos , the custom of the epitaph takes as place, as it happens on the Great Friday. The wooden framework of the epitaph is decorated with flowers and a wooden model of the sleeping Virgin Mary is placed inside the epitaph. |
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