Kyparissia marks its year with three feasts: Agios Athanasios in May, Holy Spirit Monday on the cobbled lanes of the upper town, and the big feast of the Cross that closes the summer in mid-September.
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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.
The feast of the Cross is the one the whole of Trifylia waits for. It is built around the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14, lasts about a week, and its historic home was the streets around the church of the Annunciation, in the Panigyristria quarter, where it had been held since 1850. On the day itself the Cross and the icon are carried in procession between the stalls. Otherwise it is a trade fair of the old kind: stalls of household goods and clothes, grills turning out spit-roast pork and souvlaki, beer and wine, bumper cars for the children, and people from every surrounding village coming down to shop before winter.
Holy Spirit Monday, the day after Orthodox Pentecost, belongs to the upper town. The church of Agia Triada, high in the old settlement beneath the Frankish castle, holds vespers and the blessing of the loaves on Pentecost Sunday evening, after which people drift into the lanes and tavernas to eat. On Monday morning the icon comes down in procession, with the town band and the schools, to the cathedral of Agios Athanasios. The old quarter, with its Ottoman fountains and bathhouse, is a protected settlement, and the castle was the last stronghold of the Franks in the Peloponnese - worth the climb before the service.
On May 17 the town honours Agios Athanasios, bishop of Christianoupolis, with a procession of his icon through the main streets and a prayer in the central square. The same day is kept at Christianoi, the Trifylia village that was once the seat of the bishopric. In summer the inland villages take over, each on its own saint's day, with tables in the square, a live band and the kalamatianos dance running late into the night.
It runs for about a week around September 14, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Expect stalls, grills and a funfair, with a procession of the Cross and the icon on the feast day. See the current calendar on Mood.
The church of Agia Triada in the upper town celebrates: vespers and the blessing of the loaves on Pentecost Sunday evening, then on Monday morning a procession of the icon with the town band down to the cathedral of Agios Athanasios.
Agios Athanasios, bishop of Christianoupolis, whose feast on May 17 is marked with a procession of his icon through town and a service at nearby Christianoi. Summer village feasts in the area are listed on Mood.
