Kavala has two festive peaks that look nothing alike: the Epiphany rituals in the villages of Mount Pangaio in January, and the summer saint's day feasts in the squares.
Panigiria · Kavala
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.
At Nikisiani, on the foothills of Pangaio, the custom of the Arapides is performed on Epiphany itself, January 6 - the same ritual that comes alive on the same day at Monastiraki in neighbouring Drama. Men disguised in hides and masks, girded with heavy bells, take to the streets after the blessing of the waters. The bell-wearers of Eastern Macedonia appear either at Epiphany or at Carnival and are held to be a survival of Dionysian rites - the wider area, with Philippi and Pangaio, carries that memory a long way back.
In summer the calendar returns to the familiar shape: each village keeps its saint's day, tables go up in the square, a live band plays and the dancing runs late. The make-up of the population gives the music its colour - a large share of residents have refugee roots in Pontos, Thrace and Asia Minor, and the songs and dances of the cultural associations keep those traditions alive alongside the Macedonian ones. Kavala itself, rising amphitheatrically above its harbour with the old town of Panagia and the Kamares aqueduct, keeps its own programme of events through the summer.
In the villages of Pangaio and the wider prefecture, the largest being the Arapides custom at Nikisiani on January 6, and in summer saint's day feasts in the village squares. See the current calendar on Mood.
An Epiphany ritual on January 6: men in hides, masks and heavy bells take to the streets after the blessing of the waters. The same custom is performed on the same day at Monastiraki in Drama.
