Panigiria Near Athens

Athens and the wider Attica region hold panigiria throughout the warmer months at neighbourhood churches, coastal village squares and community association halls. The music at traditional Attica panigiria is built on the klarino (Greek clarinet), violin and laouto - the continental Greek dimotika tradition, distinct from the Cycladic tsambouna-and-lyra tradition of the islands. August 15 (Dekapentavgoustos, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary) is the peak day of the Orthodox calendar, with events simultaneously in dozens of parishes across Attica from Kifisia to the Saronic coast.

For Athenians the summer pattern is to travel - to the islands or to the Attica villages - for the major panigiria rather than to attend in the city centre. The villages of Attica (Marathon, Keratea, Markopoulo, the communities of the Mesogeia, the coastal settlements of the Saronic Gulf) each hold their own calendar of saint's day feasts. The wine-producing Mesogeia region also marks the grape harvest in autumn with its own festival tradition. The Saronic islands of Aegina, Poros and Salamina are the closest large-scale August 15 panigiria to the Athens metropolitan area.