Holidays are taken very seriously in Greece, and Gavalochori is no exception. Often, many businesses, public buildings, and archaeological and historic sites are closed on holidays. As a result, you need to be aware of such closures so that you don’t plan an outing to someplace only to find it is closed. Even if many establishments are closed, the natural beauty of Crete is always open, and a few commercial establishments usually stay open to allow you access to food and other basics. Holidays also give you the opportunity to participate in the name-day or other religious festivals and celebrations in churches in Gavalochori. The festivals and holidays that you can experience in Gavalochori are organized here by month so you can quickly see if some will be occurring when you are here.
New Year’s Day/Saint Basil’s Day. Saint Basil, the equivalent of Father Christmas in other parts of the world, is said to have distributed bread to the poor in which he had hidden money for them. This act is ritualized with a Saint Basil’s cake called vasilopita (βασιλόπιτα), which contains a hidden coin. A slice is cut for each family member and guest in order of age from the oldest to the youngest, and the person who receives the slice containing the coin will supposedly have a lucky year. A church service in the Church of the Nativity of Mary is followed by singing, dancing, and feasting. Gifts are exchanged on this day and not on Christmas Day. You might also see sailboats decorated with lights around this date, the Greek equivalent of Christmas trees.
Another tradition on this day is to hang an askeletoura (ασκελετούρα) plant at the entrance to the house. The askeletoura grows wild around Gavalochori and has a very large bulb that looks a bit like a big onion. At the start of a new year, it is pulled from the fields, and because it can survive even when uprooted, it symbolizes growth and regeneration and thus good luck for the coming year.
Epiphany or the Blessing of the Waters. A celebration of Christ’s baptism by Saint John, celebrated by immersing crosses in seas, lakes, and rivers to bless them. In some places, young men (and now some women) dive for crosses tossed into a body of water by a priest. You can view this ceremony at the harbor in Kalyves (Καλύβες) or in Armenoi (Αρμένοι), where the cross is thrown into the river. This ceremony starts at 9:00 a.m.
Name or feast day of the Church of Saint Anthony. Religious services are celebrated the evening before and the morning of this day in the church in Gavalochori. The name days of saints typically celebrate the day that the saints died rather than their birth dates because they became martyrs and returned to God on the day that they died. Sometimes, you will find the churches decorated on their name days with seasonal greenery, the branches of bay leaves, and colorful triangle flags. People who have a strong connection with the saint for whom a church is named—perhaps they share the same name as the saint or the saint helped them in their life in some way—will often bring an offering to the service on the saint’s name day. Offerings consist of cakes, cookies, cheese pies, cheese, wine, and raki. These offerings are shared among the parishioners following the service.
Name day of the Church of Saint Charalampos. The Church of Saint Charalampos is physically connected to the Church of the Nativity of Mary in Gavalochori. Religious services are celebrated the evening before and the morning of this day in the church in Gavalochori.
A three-week period prior to the beginning of Lent. Greek Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring solstice. Its date can range from April 4 to May 8. Because the date of Easter moves between April and May, the dates of carnival and all of the rituals associated with Easter also move across the calendar.
The three weeks of carnival have their own names and themes. The first week is Prophoní (Προφωνή), “preannouncement week”; the second is Kreatiní (Κρεατινή), “meat week”; and the third is Tiriní (Τυρινή), “cheese week.” A high point during Kreatini is Tsiknopémpti (“Smoky Thursday”), when celebrants host outdoor parties and roast large amounts of meat. The ritual is repeated the following Sunday, after which meat is forbidden until Easter. The following week, Tirini, is marked by similar festivities that feature the consumption of cheese, eggs, and dairy and culminate with “Cheese Sunday,” which is the Sunday before Clean Monday.
The final weekend of carnival is the most popular for dances, masked balls, and children’s parties, culminating in carnival parades on the final Sunday before Lent. Although it doesn’t happen now as much as it used to, on this Sunday, children visit the homes of friends and family dressed in costumes, and the people they visit try to recognize who they are and reward them with treats. A carnival parade is no longer held in Gavalochori, but you can see one in Kalyves (Καλύβες), Chania (Χανιά), and Rethymno (Ρέθυμνο). These parades usually begin at 2:00 p.m.
First day of Lent following carnival. This day is called Clean Monday because Greek Orthodox adherents try to begin the holy season with “clean hearts and good intentions”—cleaning up their spiritual houses and rededicating themselves to more holy ways of living. Clean Monday marks the beginning of a fasting period, where no meat, eggs, or dairy products may be eaten for the 40 days leading up to Easter. Some Gavalochori residents abstain from eating these foods for the entire 40 days, while others fast in less rigid ways—some for just the first or the last week of Lent, for example, or only on Wednesdays and Fridays. Because Clean Monday also marks the first day of spring, it is a day when people fly kites and picnic on unleavened bread and seafood.
Greek independence day and celebration of the annunciation of Mary. This day marks both a political and a religious event. It celebrates the successful Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) against the Turks and is also a religious holiday because it coincides with the Feast of the Annunciation, a celebration of the day that the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was pregnant and would become the mother of Jesus Christ. The two events were combined in 1838 by King Otto, a German prince who was the first king of the modern Greek state, when he issued this decree: “Considering that the day of March 25, brilliant in itself for all Greeks because of the celebration of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is also brilliant and joyful for the start of the pro-independence struggle of the Greek Nation on this day, we establish this day in perpetuity as a day of NATIONAL HOLIDAY.” The holiday is celebrated in Gavalochori with a religious service in the morning in the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus
Celebration of Jesus’s return to Jerusalem, where he was greeted by people waving palm branches. On this last Sunday of Lent and the Sunday before Easter, worshippers return from church services with small crosses woven of palm and myrtle made by the priest and/or women in Gavalochori.
A day of mourning the death of Jesus. In Gavalochori, an evening service is held in the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, followed by the procession of the Epitaphios, where villagers carry a re-creation of the tomb of Jesus decorated with flowers and candles through Gavalochori. The procession leaves the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus and goes to the old school and the Church of the Nativity of Mary before returning to the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus.
Celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. People come from many villages around Gavalochori and even from Chania to participate in this ritual on the Saturday night before Easter. Some attend the service inside the church, and others gather in the open area outside of the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, but everyone brings a candle. At midnight, all the lights in the churches are extinguished until the priest appears with a lighted candle and says, “Christ is risen!” The priest lights a candle with the “Holy Flame” and then lights the candle of someone standing near him. That individual then lights the candle of someone near, and the light is transferred from one to another until all of the candles held by the people gathered have been lighted.
Outside the church, an effigy of Judas is tied atop a pyre of tree branches that has been prepared in the days leading up to the Saturday service. In the early 20th century, the bonfire was built by schoolchildren over a number of days, but now, with the advent of tractors and chain saws, it is built generally in a day by young men in the village (although anyone can bring branches to add to the pyre while it is being built). After everyone’s candle is lighted, the pyre is torched, and Judas is burned in effigy, accompanied by firecrackers and fireworks.
Following the burning of Judas, everyone moves to the main square, where members of the Gavalochori Cultural Association serve raki, wine, and hard-boiled eggs dyed bright red to represent the blood of Christ.
Celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. A church service is held in the morning in the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus. Family and friends often gather together in the afternoon and evening for food, wine, and music, and the Gavalochori Cultural Association typically serves a meal in the square in the evening on this day or the Monday following. Many families roast a lamb on Easter Sunday, and if you walk around Gavalochori on this day, you are likely to see and smell lamb roasting on spits throughout the village.
This is also a time to eat the Easter bread called tsoureki (τσουρέκι) that contains a bright red hard-boiled egg nestled in its braids that you will see in bakeries around Easter. It is prepared on the Thursday before Easter but is not eaten until Sunday because it contains items that aren’t to be eaten during Lent.
People also play a game on this day with the bright red hard-boiled eggs. Each person holds an egg, and one of the players starts the game by saying, “Christ is risen.” The other responds, “Truly, He is risen” and smacks her or his egg on top of the partner’s egg. Whichever one cracks is the losing egg, and the owner of the winning egg goes on to play with other friends and family members. The egg that wins over all of the others is called the lucky egg.
This holiday is part of the Easter cycle, so it may be in May or June, depending on when Easter occurs. The Pentecost occurs 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. It commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of flames to the disciples of Jesus. Many people who spoke a variety of languages had gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate a religious holiday, and the Holy Spirit allowed the disciples or apostles to preach in other languages through “tongues of fire.” Many Greek Orthodox Christians recognize the Pentecost as the birth of the church because the descent of the Holy Spirit completed the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It was also the first time that the apostles had preached to the masses.
The Monday following the Pentecost is Pentecost Monday or Holy Spirit Monday, a public holiday in Greece. Schools and businesses are closed, but shops, restaurants, and tavernas are usually open on this day because it is a day when many Greeks travel since it makes a three-day weekend for workers. A religious service is held in the morning in the Church of the Nativity of Mary on this day.
A celebration of spring and International Workers’ Day. Although the start of spring is celebrated less often than it used to be, people in Gavalochori gather wildflowers and make wreaths or small bouquets out of them and hang them over the front doors or gates of their houses. Because it is also International Workers’ Day, May 1 is a public holiday, and almost everything is closed. If May 1 falls on a weekend, it is celebrated either before or after the weekend, and then everything is closed both on May 1 and on the adjacent weekday.
Name day of Saints Constantine and Helen. Because the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus was originally called the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen and one of its domes is dedicated to these saints, their feast day is celebrated with religious services the evening before and the morning of this day in the church in Gavalochori.
Various aspects of the life of Saint John are celebrated on many days because he is such an important figure in Christian theology, but his birth is celebrated the evening before and in the morning of June 23 in Saint John’s Church in Gavalochori. In the evening before June 23, two rituals used to be celebrated in the village and are sometimes revived and celebrated still. One is the custom of klidonas (κλήδονας), a ritual by which unmarried women in the village supposedly gleaned information about their future husbands. In the evening, the unmarried women of the village gathered at a fountain in the village, and one of them collected water called the unspoken water in a clay vessel. It was carried to the main square by the women, who had to stay silent while doing so—not talking or laughing—or else they had to go back and redo the ritual. Each young woman then placed a rizikari (ριζικάρι), a fruit or a personal object, inside the pot, and it was covered with a red cloth and tied with a ribbon. The vessel was left outside all night under the stars so that it could collect the magical properties that would show the women information about their future husbands. While the young women were carrying water, the young men of the village collected the dried wreaths that had been made on May 1, gathered them into a pile with firewood, and set them on fire in the main square of Gavalochori. Each young man jumped over the fire three times to expel evil and to guarantee a prosperous year. The practice of jumping over fires has been revived recently in Gavalochori—the event occurs on or close to June 23. A more elaborate ceremony can be seen in the nearby village of Vamos.
Assumption of the Virgin Mary. This is the day when Mary ascended into heaven, and it is the third biggest religious holiday in Greece after Easter and Christmas. The holiday begins on August 15, and much of the commercial activity in the country is closed for the following 15 days. Most people have two weeks off from work during this time, and it is a time when people return to their home villages for family reunions. The end of the two weeks marks the end of the summer for the Greeks. Religious services are celebrated the evening before and the morning of this day in the Church of the Nativity of Mary in Gavalochori.
Celebration of the Church of Saint John that is located between Gavalochori and the village of Douliana (Δουλιανά) and marks the beheading of the saint. This day is a celebration both for villagers in Gavalochori and Douliana, who refrain from eating all food on this day. If they eat any foods, they supposedly will get goosebumps or feel a tremor. The goosebumps also may be attributed to the fact that Saint John is known for healing people from the shivers of malaria. Because the end of August often marks the change in climate from summer to fall, the goosebumps also could be due simply to the change in climate. A big festival in the square in the village of Douliana is held the evening of August 29 and during the day on August 30.
S’Agapame Gavalochori (We love Gavalochori). This is a concert that benefits local charities featuring expat rock bands from the area. It is held at the old school beginning at 7:00 p.m., and food and drink supplied by the Gavalochori Cultural Association are available for sale.
“No!” Day. This day is a celebration of the Greek prime minister Ioannis Metaxas’s saying “no” to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on October 28, 1940. Mussolini demanded that Greece allow Axis forces to enter Greek territory and occupy certain unspecified “strategic locations” or otherwise face war. His demand was allegedly answered by Metaxas with a single word: “No!,” but his actual reply was, “Alors, c’est la guerre!” (“Then it is war!”) One of the reasons Metaxas had to oppose the Italian ultimatum was that the Greek people were excited about the upcoming war and had begun preparing for it almost as if they were going to a celebration. This atmosphere influenced Metaxas to respond as he did to Mussolini’s demand. In response to Metaxas’s refusal, Italian troops attacked the Greek border with Albania on that day, marking the beginning of Greece’s participation in World War II. The day is commemorated each year with military and student parades, most public buildings and residences are decorated with Greek flags, and schools and all places of work are closed. A parade no longer takes place in Gavalochori on this day, but you can see one in Vamos and in Chania.
Name day of Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas is considered to be the patron saint of sailors because he calmed a stormy sea through prayer. This is why a boat is decorated on this day and why boats strung with lights are often part of Christmas decorations in Greece (villagers often decorate Christmas trees on this day as well). Religious services are celebrated the evening before and the morning of this day in the Church of the Nativity of Mary in Gavalochori.
For about a month during the holiday season, Gavalochori hosts a light festival, with holiday lights displayed throughout the village. This celebration of light was begun in December of 2019 and is marked with an opening ceremony in the middle of December with speeches, music, dancing, and mezes in the main square. Although the display of lights is still modest, more lights and more sophisticated lights are added each year. The lights are usually taken down soon after Epiphany on January 6.
Christmas Day. This second most important religious holiday in Greece after Easter celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, and it is a public holiday in Greece. Religious services are celebrated the evening before and the morning of this day in the Church of the Nativity of Mary in Gavalochori.
New Year’s Eve. In Gavalochori, people shoot guns and set off fireworks at midnight to mark the birth of the new year. Be ready to duck when the shooting starts!
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