In Sitia the glenti is tuned differently: here the violin holds its own beside the lyra, and mantinades - improvised rhyming couplets - fly between the tables late into the night. From July to mid-September almost every village at the eastern tip of Crete has its own night.
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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.
Until the early 20th century the lyra ruled in Sitia too. After 1900, though, the violin spread almost everywhere, and the turning point was the return of violinist Stratis Kalogeridis from Paris in 1905: he recorded, preserved and reworked old melodies and became the benchmark for every player who came after. The Sitia kontylies, the region's signature tunes, live on in that tradition, which is why at a local feast the violin shares the stage with the lyra and the laouto lutes. The dances are the Cretan staples - pentozali, sousta, siganos - and the couplets are traded over the tunes. The area also carries a literary memory: Vitsentzos Kornaros, the poet of the Cretan verse romance Erotokritos, was born at Trapezonda near Sitia, and the municipality's summer programme of music, dance, theatre and traditional recipes, the Kornareia, is named after him.
The village calendar follows the saints: Prophet Elias on July 20 at Mesa Mouliana, Agia Paraskevi on July 26 at Ziros, Agios Panteleimon on July 27 at Roussa Ekklisia, Afentis Christos (the Transfiguration) on August 6 at Zakros, and August 15, the Dormition, filling the squares at Armeni, Lastros, Palaikastro and Sitanos. August closes with Agios Ioannis on August 29 at Ziros and Goudouras, and in September come Lithines and Sfaka, which keeps the feast of the Holy Cross on September 14. At many of them the entry ticket also covers food at the long tables.
Sitia also has a category of its own: feasts built around a local product. At Chamezi the village cultural centre stages the Kazanemata each summer, with raki running from the still, plus an evening for xygalo, the soft soured-milk cheese of Sitia. At Palaikastro the cultural society holds a myzithropita (cheese pie) feast in the courtyard of the folklore museum, while Achladia, Sykia and Piskokefalo celebrate olive oil, figs and raisins. The sultana raisin was once the region's gold, and its festivals were major events. In winter the Sitia Carnival fills the town with night parades and floats, led by its mascot, Polydoros the octopus.
Mostly from July to mid-September. The key dates are Prophet Elias (July 20), Agia Paraskevi (July 26), Afentis Christos (August 6), the Dormition (August 15), Agios Ioannis (August 29) and the Holy Cross (September 14). See the current programme on Mood.
The lyra dominated here until about 1900, but in the 20th century the violin took over almost all of eastern Crete, shaped above all by Stratis Kalogeridis, who came back from Paris in 1905. The Sitia kontylies, the area's best-known tunes, live on in that tradition.
Armeni, Lastros, Palaikastro and Sitanos are among the villages that hold a feast on August 15, with live Cretan music in the square. A few days earlier, on August 6, Zakros celebrates Afentis Christos. Announced nights are listed on Mood.
