In Kilkis the summer peaks at Goumenissa over the Assumption on August 15, but the prefecture celebrates all year with the traditions refugees brought from Pontos, Thrace and Eastern Rumelia.
Panigiria · Kilkis
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.
In Goumenissa, in the Paionia district, the Dormition of the Virgin is not a single day but four, from August 14 to 17, centred on the Monastery of Panagia Goumenissa and its miracle-working icon. Something rare survives here: an Epitaphios of the Virgin, a flower-decked bier dressed with basil, carried in procession with hymns - a custom the Greek Church banned in the 19th century and which never died out. After the services the feast begins: lamb on the spit, wine poured straight from the barrel - Goumenissa is Xinomavro wine country - and dancing until morning to the brass. The Goumenissa brass bands, with clarinets, trumpets, trombones and drums, have played weddings and feasts since the early 20th century and have toured as far as America and Australia.
The rest of the prefecture takes its character from its refugee communities. In Nea Santa, a village founded by Pontic Greeks, the local association holds a two-night Pontic glenti for the Transfiguration on August 6, with the Pontic lyra and the dances of the Black Sea. In Polykastro, on the feast of Saint George, the kourbani lives on: goats are cooked and shared out with wine and tsipouro, with music and dancing. In winter, during the twelve days of Christmas, the Momogeroi of the Pontic associations take to the streets of the town in masks and bells - folk theatre full of improvised teasing that symbolically chases out the old year. And in early September the town of Kilkis fills the streets around the town hall with stalls for its trade fair, the emporopanigyri, with dance groups and concerts.
Every year around August 15, with events running from August 14 to 17 at the Monastery of Panagia Goumenissa. It includes the procession of the Virgin's Epitaphios and a feast with food, wine and the local brass bands. See the current calendar on Mood.
In villages with Pontic roots such as Nea Santa, which celebrates the Transfiguration on August 6 with a two-night glenti. In winter the Pontic associations bring out the Momogeroi over the twelve days of Christmas. Each year's dates are listed on Mood.
Folk bands of wind and percussion - clarinets, trumpets, trombones and drums - that have played the feasts of Central Macedonia for over a century. They are the sound of August 15 in Goumenissa.
