Kato Meria on July 26 is one of the few places in Greece where a church complex keeps its own slaughterhouse, wood-fired oven, guest rooms and communal refectories for a single annual event - with up to 300 volunteers working a full week. Violin and laouto play from midnight until dawn.
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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.
Preparation for the feast of Agia Paraskevi begins on July 17 and intensifies from the 23rd, when the church's communal kitchen runs without pause. On the day of the feast some 170-200 sheep and goats and two to four calves are slaughtered as tamata - offerings families have personally pledged to the saint. Around 800 hand-made loaves of eftazymo are baked in the wood-fired oven (56 loaves of 2.5kg per batch). The feast's head cook had held the position for 46 consecutive years at the last recording. The church at Kato Meria has infrastructure built solely for this one annual event: a slaughterhouse, a traditional oven, a kitchen, guest rooms and communal refectories. Up to 300 volunteers work day and night for a week, for roughly 4,000 pilgrims on an island of 1,800 permanent residents.
The food is specifically Amorgian: patatato (goat slow-cooked with potatoes in large cauldrons), xydato (goat offal soup with vinegar - not found elsewhere in the Cyclades), short macaroni with local mizithra cheese, and risotto with chickpeas and octopus. Violin and laouto play from midnight until sunrise; on the same day, Katapola holds its Psimeni Raki Festival - a live demonstration of traditional distilling with honey and spices, with local musicians and dancing. A separate large panigiri is held at Langada on August 14-15 (Panagia Epanochoriani). The Monastery of Chozoviotissa (founded in 1017, built into a 300-metre cliff) celebrates on November 21 - one of the rare large panigiria outside summer.
On July 25-26, at the church of Agia Paraskevi in Kato Meria, in southern Amorgos. It is recorded as the largest traditional panigiri in the Cyclades: roughly 4,000 pilgrims on an island of 1,800 permanent residents, 170-200 animals offered as tamata and 800 hand-made loaves from the communal oven. The music starts at midnight and runs until morning.
Xydato is a goat offal soup made with vinegar, characteristic of Amorgian feast cooking and rarely recorded elsewhere in the Cyclades. It is served at the feast of Agia Paraskevi alongside patatato and eftazymo bread. The dishes are prepared by volunteer cooks and offered free to everyone.
