The municipality of Alexandroupolis celebrates village by village all summer, and beside the saint's days runs a second calendar: the antamomata, where the people of each settlement gather back in their own place.
Panigiria · Alexandroupolis
May - September
Panigiria run from May to September, and the season peaks at Dekapentavgoustos - the Dormition, on 15 August - when most villages hold their feast. Each programme is set close to its own saint's day, so the list fills late and empties out of season.
The calendar opens in July: Agia Marina at Maistros on July 17, Agia Paraskevi at Makri on July 26, and at the end of the month a festival of traditional dances at Antheia. At the close of summer Kirki holds its own evening with the gaida - the Thracian bagpipe that gives the region's music its characteristic sound. Alongside these, Pontic, Cappadocian and Sarakatsani associations organise their own gatherings through the summer, and in every village of the municipality the local customs are kept at the feasts of the parish churches.
The antamomata are the most distinctive part: not a religious feast but an annual reunion of those who come from a village, and they are the reason a settlement fills up again for an evening. In Alexandroupolis itself the Grape Harvest Festival brings a hands-on treading trough, traditional flavours and dancing from local groups. The make-up of the population - native Thracians, Pontic Greeks, Cappadocians, Sarakatsani - means three different repertoires can be heard in the same square across one night, and the dancing changes with them.
At Maistros on July 17, Makri on July 26, Antheia in late July with its festival of traditional dances, and Kirki at the end of summer. See the current calendar on Mood.
Annual reunions of the residents and emigrants of each village in the municipality, outside the religious calendar. Pontic, Cappadocian and Sarakatsani associations also organise them through the summer.
