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Spotlight

Panagia and Panigiri

Traditional roots in a modern town. August 15th or ’Panagia’ is the second most important religious holiday in the Greek Orthodox Calendar after Easter. For the observant, this marks the day of the assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven. Traditionally, strict Orthodox observers will have fasted for two weeks beforehand, so the breaking of the fast is a time of great celebration. For those of you who don’t know, ‘Panagia’ is the Greek for the Virgin Mary — ’Agia’ being the feminine for Saint, with ’Pan’ being an all-encompassing term, obviously. Regardless of faith, it is seen as a time when people get back to their roots - embracing the traditional values that help to make the fabric of this wonderful culture. In more prosaic terms, it is the time of the Great Greek Getaway—people head back to the ‘village’ - most ‘Athenians’ are not originally ’Athenians’, after all. Domestic ferry tickets and plane tickets are booked up months in advance. As for trying to get a room on an island on the ‘off-chance’ during this week—forget it! ‘Panigiri’, on the other hand, is the term generally used to describe the religious festival which celebrates a local Saint. So, if your village church is named after St George, your ‘Panigiri’ is on St George’s day. Which, of course, here, means a party. With those villages who have a Saint Maria church, the ‘Panigiri’ is at ‘Panagia’, which can be a little confusing for a foreigner. Just remember—you will probably be able to find a Panigiri somewhere in Greece almost any day of the year (because there are quite a lot of Saints), but to celebrate the Panagia with a Panigiri THERE IS ONLY ONE DAY (But see note about the three day festival below). We hope this clarification helps. We did seek guidance from a dictionary, but it was the “Oxford Greek-English Learner’s” one by Stavropoulos, which as Brian Church in the Athens News has pointed out is faintly eccentric.

There will be many great celebrations going on in the Rethymnon region — there are several villages, of course that have a church dedicated to ‘Maria’, furthermore, there are other Saints’ days that are celebrated in the month of August (Sotiris, Asteria, Natalia and Alexandros to name just a few). In our very local neck of the woods, one of the most vibrant ‘Panigiri for the Panagia’ takes place at Gonia, a couple of villages up the hill past Atsipopolou on the Old Road towards Hania (but see note about driving below). Nicknamed ‘Mikri Gonia’ (‘Small Corner’) here, which helps to avoid confusion with the more internationally known ‘Asi Gonia’ of Cretan Runner and Sheep Festival fame (see May issue of CMB), this is a village with a huge heart. The Panigiri lasts three days—kicking off late in the evening on the 14th August and going through to the 16th. As we remember from last year (but see below), there may be a small entrance fee to get yourself into the massive inner circle that is the Village Square and the Party. If you are remotely interested in listening to crash-hot Cretan music and having a good time then this is one of the better places on this planet to be.

We were sure that we had some great pictures of the Panagia Panigiri in Gonia last year (we wanted to provide you with atmospheric shots of musicians, traditional Cretan dancers, etc. etc.). We had a great time. The whole of the square was taken over with trestle tables, there was food, music, dancing, a raffle and plenty to drink. But the only photo we could find that was printable is the one you see to the right (raffle prize enjoying the party). Now before you state the obvious, we’re not entirely convinced that it was the wine at the actual Panigiri that did the damage. Some of us ‘townies’ had made our way up from Rethymnon to the village for a pre-Panigiri soiree involving lashings of Irish hospitality and a good fish curry before moving on to the fiesta. We will try harder this time, hopefully you will get a better impression in our September issue!

Safety. Designate a Non-Drinking Driver. Or: TAKE A TAXI

We don’t want to pour cold water on anyone’s fun, and we hope that for most of our regular readers this next bit will be taken as read. However, the August holiday season in Greece unfortunately, has, up until now been accompanied by a high number of ‘drink-driving deaths’ (let’s hope that this year is different in this respect). For those of you new to the area, it might be all too easy to say “Well, we’ll just drive up to the Panigiri, and have one glass of wine, and drive back”. But, village hospitality being what it is, things aren’t always so straightforward — at a guess you will become enthralled by the music and atmosphere, you will end up dancing, and make several new friends. And, unless you are a teetotaler, that one glass of wine is likely to lead to several more. Enough of lecture. Taxis are cheap here, compared to Northern Europe (more than can be said for coffee in a café, but that’s by the by). Anyway, the main taxi ranks in Rethymnon may be found at Four Martyrs Square (just outside Guora Gate, entrance to Old Town) and at Agnostou ‘Square of the Unknown Soldier’ (beachfront, by Kyma Hotel). When you want to get back to Rethymnon from the particular village you are in, useful taxi phone numbers are: 28310 22316 / 28310 25000, and generally, good English is spoken. If you are having problems making the phone call when leaving the Panigiri, don’t be shy : JUST ASK SOMEBODY TO HELP YOU OUT—and if you are at a Panigiri in this region it will take you no longer than a minute and a half to find a multi-lingual Cretan local who will be more than willing to come to your aid. NO EXCUSES, PLEASE!