All events in Veria
Panigiria Near
Veria carries more traditions than a single calendar can hold: Vlachs, Roumloukiotes and Sarakatsani on one side, refugees from Pontos, Cappadocia, Eastern Rumelia and Thrace on the other.
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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.
Panigiria in other cities
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Panigiria Near Veria
The city's patron, Agios Antonios the New, has a summer feast with a programme of its own, and it is the year's largest gathering for Veria. Around it, the villages of Imathia keep their own days, with tables in the square and a live band running late. What is distinctive here, though, is the number of customs that have survived and are not simply saint's days: the Kourbani, the Fires, the Tranos Choros, the Rougatsia and the custom of the Momogeros. Each belongs to a different community and a different point in the year, and together they give the prefecture a calendar that works through the winter too.
The Tranos Choros is exactly what its name says - the great circle that the whole village joins - while the Rougatsia and Momogeri are rituals of the twelve days of Christmas, with disguises and processions that recall the bell-wearers of Eastern Macedonia. The Kourbani keeps the memory of communal sacrifice and the shared table. The area is one of vineyards and orchards - the peaches of Imathia are its best-known produce - and at the feast-day table come wine, roast meat and the local spoon sweets.
Common questions
What is the biggest panigiri in Veria?+
The summer feast of the city's patron, Agios Antonios the New, with a programme of its own. Around it, the villages of Imathia keep their own saint's days. See the current calendar on Mood.
What customs does the Veria area keep?+
The Kourbani, the Fires, the Tranos Choros, the Rougatsia and the Momogeros. They belong to different communities - Vlachs, Roumloukiotes, Sarakatsani and refugees from Pontos, Cappadocia and Thrace - and are spread across the year.