Panigiria in Spetses

The Armata recalls the naval battle of 8 September 1822, when the Spetses fleet, reinforced by ships from Hydra and Psara, turned back an Ottoman fleet heading for Nafplio. The fireship captain Kosmas Barbatsis reached the Turkish flagship and set it alight, and the enemy withdrew. The battle fell on the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, and the islanders credited the Panagia with the victory: on the cape by the lighthouse, where the island's strongest battery once stood, they built the church of Panagia Armata, which celebrates every 8 September. Today the festival runs for about a week of concerts, traditional dance, theatre, exhibitions and a wreath-laying at the Barbatsis monument, and usually peaks on the second Saturday of September with the re-enactment: narration in Greek and English, cannon fire, a replica flagship wrapped in flames and sinking, and fireworks over the harbour.

Summer feasts are smaller and more local. July brings Agioi Anargyroi, Agia Marina, Profitis Ilias and Agia Paraskevi - in the old days the whole island went out to Agioi Anargyroi and Agia Paraskevi on the south coast and camped there for three days. August has the Transfiguration and the Dormition of the Virgin at Kastelli, and September Agios Mamas and Panagia Daskalaki, patron of the island's hunters. The Spetses syrtos and the hasapiko are the dances, and violin and lute are the instruments that have long led weddings and feasts. In winter, on 6 December, the island honours its patron Agios Nikolaos at the church with the pebble-mosaic courtyard above the Old Harbour, where Spetses rose in revolt on 3 April 1821.

Easter on Spetses has its own staging. On Lazarus Saturday girls go door to door with flower-decked baskets singing carols. On Good Friday the funeral biers of the parishes meet in Poseidonion Square, on the night of the Resurrection each parish sets off its own fireworks, and at Analipsi, the fishermen's parish, a boat is burned in the churchyard - a small Armata of its own. At Kounoupitsa an effigy of Judas goes up in flames over the Easter days. At Carnival the big party is held on the last Sunday in Clock Square, and on Clean Monday children fly kites while families share Lenten food and dance at Sourbouti and Kastelli.