There are many sorts of festivals in Greece that take place mostly in summer.

Festivals have a religious base and they are in accordance with the Orthodox calendar. The
Orthodox calendar is similar to the Catholic calendar, except for Easter sometimes. Those greek
festivities are part of the Greek culture.

Other important festivals in Greece have a cultural nature. Many concerts and music festivals
take place in Greece.
Festivals that are world known are The Festival of Epidaurus: Many theatrical plays are
performed in the country's ancient and modern theatres (Epidaurus). The Film festival of
Thessaloniki: Cinema is also quite well represented and a festival takes place every year in
Thessaloniki.
Moreover, the country has an interesting music scene, especially in the summertime, with many
appearances from national and international bands. View the upcoming cultural events and
festivals.

Religious Festivals
Information about Religious festivals based on the Christian Orthodox religion.

January 1st, the New Year's Day

January 1st is the Feast of Agios Vassilis (the Santa Claus in Greece is Saint Basil), celebrated
with church services. That day, all Greek families cut the vasilopita, sweet bread with a coin
inside which brings good luck for the year to come to its finder. January 1st is also the day when
Christmas gifts are given to the children. Generally, Greece has many interesting Christmas
customs that revive very vividly all over the country.

January 6th, the Epiphany

This is the feast of Agia Theofania, or Fota, which celebrates the day when the "kallikantzaroi",
or hobgoblins that appeared during the period of Christmas, are re-banished to the netherworld
by the church's rites.

During Epiphany, waters are blessed and evil spirits are banished. At Lakeside, seaside or
riverside locations, the priests throw a cross into the water and young locals dive to compete for
the privilege and blessing to catch it.

February-March, The Carnival

The Carnival is called "Apokries" in Greek and it is expressed by three weeks of feasting and
dancing. The Carnival takes place three weeks before Lent Monday. Important Carnival Parades
take place in Patra, Xanthi, Corfu island and Rethymno with wonderful parties. The exact dates
of the Carnival vary, depending on Easter. Actually, the Carnival finishes 7 weeks before Easter.

March 25th, Feast of the Annunciation

On this feast, the Christians celebrate the day that Angel Gabriel announced Mary the
incarnation of Christ. This day coincides with a National Holiday in Greece, the day where the
Greeks declared the Revolutionary War against the Turks, on March 25th, 1821. This is why
military parades take place that day in all Greek towns.

Easter
Easter is the most important festival of the Greek Orthodox Church. It starts 7 weeks before
Easter Sunday and comes to its peak the Holy Week. This is when Services are held every
evening in the churches. On Good Friday, a special celebration takes place when all the flowered
tombs of the Christ (named Epitaphios) are gathered at the squares and make the tour of the
towns.
The peak of the Easter is on Good Saturday at midnight, when pilgrims go to the church and get
the Holy Light. At midnight exactly, the priest appears holding a lighted torch and shares the
Holy Flame on the candles of near worshippers. Then, the worshippers share at their turn the
Holy Light with their close neighbors until the entire church and the courtyard get it. It is a
beautiful spectacle.
Then, fireworks explode in the streets around the Church. Worshippers then bring the burning
candles home and make with the black smoke of the candle the sign of a cross above their door.
This custom is supposed to bring good fortune upon the house.
After midnight, families and friends eat "magiritsa", a soup made from lamb tripe, rice, dill, and
lemon. The rest of the lamb is grilled on Sunday morning for lunch, accompanied by wines and
dances.
This festival is of great importance in all the regions of Greece but some places, such as the
Greek islands of Corfu island and Chios island, are very famous for their Easter celebrations. In
some towns, the Burning of Judas takes place on Easter Sunday in the evening.

April 23rd, The Feast of Saint George (Agios Georgios)

The feast celebrates the Knight who killed the Dragon. Saint George is the patron of the
shepherds and celebrations are organized through the country. Great festivities also take place in
Arachova, Skiathos island, Skyros island and other Greek towns, where Saint George is
considered their patron saint. Celebrations in Arachova last for three days.

May/June, The Day of the Holy Spirit

The feast takes place 40-50 days after Easter. It celebrates the day that the Holy Spirit presented
to the Apostles and asked them to teach Christianity to the world. This is a holiday for students.

August 15th, The Day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

This feast celebrates Mary's ascent to Heaven. Great pilgrimages take place in all places of
Greece, particularly Tinos island, Paros island, and Patmos island. Virgin Mary is the protector
of all the country and many chapels dedicated to her will be encountered in Greece.

December 25th, Christmas

The feast is of great importance, as it is celebrating the birth of Christ. In the past, people used to
decorate wooden boats for Christmas, honoring the nautical tradition of Greece, but today people
follow western traditions and decorate Christmas trees. On December 24th, children traditionally
sing Christmas carols (kalanda) from door to door.
 LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL (1998)
Cast
 Roberto Benigni as Guido
 Nicoletta Braschi as Dora
 Giorgio Cantarini as Giosue
 Giustino Durano as Zio
 Sergio Bustric as Ferruccio
 Horst Buchholz as Doctor Lessing
Directed by
 Roberto Benigni
Written by
 Vincenzo Cerami
 Benigni
Comedy, Drama, Foreign
Rated PG-13 For Holocaust-Related Thematic Elements
114 minutes
 |  Roger Ebert
October 30, 1998   |   11 Print Page
Some people become clowns; others have clownhood thrust upon them. It is impossible
to regard Roberto Benigni without imagining him as a boy in school, already a cutup,
using humor to deflect criticism and confuse his enemies. He looks goofy and knows
how he looks. I saw him once in a line at airport customs, subtly turning a roomful of
tired and impatient travelers into an audience for a subtle pantomime in which he was
the weariest and most put-upon. We had to smile.
"Life Is Beautiful" is the role he was born to play. The film falls into two parts. One is
pure comedy. The other smiles through tears. Benigni, who also directed and co-wrote
the movie, stars as Guido, a hotel waiter in Italy in the 1930s. Watching his adventures,
we are reminded of Chaplin.
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He arrives in town in a runaway car with failed brakes and is mistaken for a visiting
dignitary. He falls in love instantly with the beautiful Dora (Nicoletta Braschi, Benigni's
real-life wife). He becomes the undeclared rival of her fiance, the Fascist town clerk. He
makes friends with the German doctor (Horst Buchholz) who is a regular guest at the
hotel and shares his love of riddles. And by the fantastic manipulation of carefully
planned coincidences, he makes it appear that he is fated to replace the dour Fascist in
Dora's life.
All of this early material, the first long act of the movie, is comedy--much of it silent
comedy involving the fate of a much-traveled hat. Only well into the movie do we even
learn the crucial information that Guido is Jewish. Dora, a gentile, quickly comes to love
him, and in one scene even conspires to meet him on the floor under a banquet table;
they kiss, and she whispers, "Take me away!" In the town, Guido survives by quick
improvisation. Mistaken for a school inspector, he invents a quick lecture on Italian
racial superiority, demonstrating the excellence of his big ears and superb navel.
Several years pass, offscreen. Guido and Dora are married and dote on their 5-year-old
son Joshua (Giorgio Cantarini). In 1945, near the end of the war, the Jews in the town are
rounded up by the Fascists and shipped by rail to a death camp. Guido and Joshua are
loaded into a train, and Guido instinctively tries to turn it into a game to comfort his
son. He makes a big show of being terrified that somehow they will miss the train and be
left behind. Dora, not Jewish, would be spared by the Fascists, but insists on coming
along to be with her husband and child.
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In the camp, Guido constructs an elaborate fiction to comfort and protect his son. It is
all an elaborate game, he explains. The first one to get 1,000 points will win a tank--not
a toy tank but a real one, which Joshua can drive all over town. Guido acts as the
translator for a German who is barking orders at the inmates, freely translating them
into Italian designed to quiet his son's fears. And he literally hides the child from the
camp guards, with rules of the game that have the boy crouching on a high sleeping
platform and remaining absolutely still.
At this year's Toronto Film Festival, Benigni told me that the movie has stirred up
venomous opposition from the right wing in Italy. At Cannes, it offended some left-wing
critics with its use of humor in connection with the Holocaust. What may be most
offensive to both wings is its sidestepping of politics in favor of simple human ingenuity.
The film finds the right notes to negotiate its delicate subject matter. And Benigni isn't
really making comedy out of the Holocaust, anyway. He is showing how Guido uses the
only gift at his command to protect his son. If he had a gun, he would shoot at the
Fascists. If he had an army, he would destroy them. He is a clown, and comedy is his
weapon.
The movie actually softens the Holocaust slightly, to make the humor possible at all. In
the real death camps there would be no role for Guido. But "Life Is Beautiful" is not
about Nazis and Fascists, but about the human spirit. It is about rescuing whatever is
good and hopeful from the wreckage of dreams. About hope for the future. About the
necessary human conviction, or delusion, that things will be better for our children than
they are right now.