Easter Celebrations and St George’s Day

The main event this month (of the year in fact) is, of course Greek Orthodox Easter, which is on Sunday 19th April—you can find out more about local customs, traditions and festivities on our Spotlight Page. Catholic Easter is a week earlier on 12th April. The Catholic church in Rethymnon which is at Odos Mesalongiou / Salaminas will be holding church services over the Catholic Easter period.

The next big celebration in the region after Orthodox Easter is St George’s Day, which is on April 23rd. This is considered to be a relatively important festival for many people in Greece, and some of our English readers may be surprised to learn that St George (the ’national’ saint of England!) carries far more weight here on Crete than he does in the UK.

St George is the Patron Saint of Shepherds (significant for Crete!) and as Giorgos is such a common name here, many people celebrate their name days. Several villages will be hosting panigiris (fiestas). One of the best known of these in our region is the shepherd’s festival in Asi Gonia., near Argiroupoli (you can read more about this in our April 2008 issue).

As ever, if you know of an event that you would like to see publicised in the next issue, please get in touch with us! Our contact details are at the bottom of this page.

World Days in April

There are several ‘World Days’ worth marking this month. April 7th is World Health Day. This year’s theme is ‘Make hospitals safe in emergencies’ which focuses on the need to build safe facilities which are structurally resilient and also on training hospital staff to be able to cope with crisis situations such as natural disasters. You can find out more about this on the www.who.int/world-health-day site. Continuing with the health care theme, World Autism Day is on April 2nd, World Malaria Day is on April 25th and World Day for Safety and Health at Work is on April 28th

On a lighter note, Saturday April 4th is World Pillow Fight Day. Various cities around the world (including Quito in Ecuador, Moscow, Russia and Northampton UK) will be hosting mass pillow fights in public places. The website www.pillofightday.com tells you all you would probably want to know about setting up your own group pillow fight, except, possibly what the purpose of the event actually is….

Farewell to Laina’s Winter Season in April

Sadly, this month Laina’s winter season at The Akropolis Taverna in Platanes (about 5km East of Rethymnon) comes to a close. Time flies when you are having fun, and Laina has done a fantastic job all winter long.

The LAST NIGHT PARTY at the Akropolis will be on Sunday 5th April, with an all-you-can-eat barbecue (10 euros per head) and music. Let’s make it a good one!

Directions: Coming into Platanes from the West, The Akropolis is on the left hand side of the road, almost directly opposite Galaxie Car Rental, about 25 metres further on from the Taxi Rank and ‘Happy Train’ stop.

To contact Laina for information, phone her on 6946 808937.

CIC Coffee Mornings in April and May

The Rethymnon branch of the Cretan International Community meets on the first Thursday of every month at Svea’s Konditori, Kapetan Lemonia 3, Rethymnon, from 11am. The April meeting will take place on Thursday 02/04/09, and the May meeting will take place on Thursday 07/05/09. Everyone, regardless of membership status is welcome to attend. The CIC coffee mornings are a great way to meet others from the international community, and to find out about up-and-coming local events. The local coordinator for the Rethymnon branch of the CIC is Anna Capernaros. Anna may be reached on 28310 57305.

You can find further information about the CIC organization itself on the www.thecic.eu website.

Bugle Outlets and Contacts

Hard copies of the Bugle are distributed in a variety of locations around town. These include: SVEA’s Swedish Coffee Shop (CIC Coffee Morning, first Thursday of each month), NewsStand (Square of Unknown Soldier), Camping Elizabeth (Misiria), Satellite Tourist Services (Sof Venizelou 21, by the Marina), Tapas y Vinos (Melissinou 14), Odysseas the Cyclist (A Velouhioti 31),  Galero Bar (Rimondi Fountain), Mediterraneo Bookstore (Paleologou), Octopus (Tsouderon 13), Τέχνης ‘Εργα (Furniture shop at Koundouriotou 153) and Cretanagora Property Sales in Spili.

All previous issues have been archived on this site and can be viewed through the archive section.

To contact The Bugle, phone Kate on 28310 54594 / 6942635515, email editor@rethymonnnews.com – the deadline for the next issue is 24/04//2009.