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Athens Events and Athens Festivals 2010 / 2011
(Athens, Attica, Greece, GR)



Leading magazines for upcoming Athens festivals and events are regularly published and there are weekly event guides that are readily available. The English-language paper 'Athens News' contains up-to-date listings of events and festivals throughout Greece, with a focus on Athens, and is aimed specifically at tourists and visitors.

Those tourist office in Amerikas Street, Athens has a free monthly English magazine, 'Now in Athens' which details cultural events and entertainment in Athens. These magazines are a useful source for shopping, dining and entertainment - providing you with a huge choice of things to see and do in Athens, Greece.




Athens National Public Holidays

• 1st January - New Year's Day
• 6th January - Epiphany, when the seas around Piraeus are blessed
• 25th March - Feast of the Annunciation / Independence Day
• Early April - Easter Monday
• 1st May - Labour Day and Flower Festival
• Good Friday - Greek Orthodox Easter
• 15th August - Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• 28th October - Ochi Day (when Greece said 'no' to Mussolini)
• 25th December - Christmas Day
• 26th December - Boxing Day

Athens Events in January - Athens

• Agios Vasileios - January 1st, also known as Protochronia, this national holiday celebrates new year's day and traditionally gifts are exchanged
• Theofania - January 6th, Epiphany is a national holiday in Athens and an important feast day. Blessing of the waters ceremonies take place throughout Greece, where youth dive to recover a cross that is thrown into the water by a priest

Athens Events in February - Athens

• Ypapanti - February 2nd, this Orthodox feast day takes place all over Greece, including Athens, and prior to pre-Lenten carnivals

Athens Events in March - Athens

• Apokries - first Sunday before Lent, carnivals takes place for three weeks leading up to the climax of pre-Lenten festivities. There are parades, costume balls and many other celebrations in Athens
• Kathari Deftera - kites are flown in the countryside
• Independence Day and Evangelismos - March 25th, a national holiday in Athens and Greece, with parades, dances, celebrating the 1821 revolt against the Ottoman empire

Athens Events in April - Athens

• Megali Evdomada - holy week in late April / early May, including Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday
• Agios Georgios - April 23rd, St' George's day is one of the most important feast days in the Orthodox calendar, commemorating the patron saint of shepherds

Athens Events in May - Athens

• Protomagia - May 1st, May Day in Athens is also known as Labour Day and this is a national holiday and a family day
• Agios Konstantinos kai Agia Eleni - May 21st, a celebration throughout Greece for Constantine and his mother, Helen, the first Orthodox Buzantine rulers. Festivities can include fire walking
• Analipsi - Ascension is another important feast day, 40 days after Easter

Athens Events in June - Athens

• Pentkosti - Pentecost or Whit Sunday is seven weeks after Orthodox Sunday and is an important feast day in Athens and throughout Greece
• Agiou Pnevmatos - feast of the Holy Spirit or Whit Monday, a national holiday
• Athens Festival - mid-June to mid-September, a popular, cultural Athens festival with a mixture of modern and ancient theatre, ballet, opera, classical music and jazz, some of which is performed on the slopes of the Acropolis
• Agios Ioannis - June 24th, St. John's Day is celebrated in throughout Greece and commemorates the birth of St. john the Baptist. One the evening before, many large bonfire are lit in Athens

Athens Events in July - Athens

• Agia Marina - July 17th, this day is widely celebrated in rural areas, with feasts to honour the saint, who is an important protector of crops
• Ionnina Cultural Summer - July and August, with a wide range of music, arts and cultural events in Athens
• Profitis ilias - July 18th to 20th, the Prophet Elijah is widely celebrated at shrines

Athens Events in August - Athens

• Metamorfosi - August 6th, transfiguration of Christ, this is an important day for the Orthodox church
• Koimisis tis Theotokou - August 15th, Assumption of the Virgin Mary. This national holiday is a widely celebrated feast day in Athens
• Apotomi Kefalis Ioannou Prodromou - August 29th, the beheading of St. John the Baptist is an occasion for festivals in many chapels throughout Athens and Greece

Athens Events in September - Athens

• Gennisis tis Theotokou - September 8th, the birth of the Virgin Mary is an important religious feast day in the Orthodox religious calendar
• Ypsosis you Timiou Stavrou - September 14th, this feast day celebrates the Exaltation of the True Cross and is a major summer festival in Athens

Athens Events in October - Athens

• Agios Dimitrios - October 26th, this traditionally marks the end of the grazing season and sheep are brought down from the hills
• Ochi Day - October 28th, a national holiday with patriotic parades and dancing, commemorating the Greek reply of 'no' (ochi) to the 1940 ultimatum from Mussolini calling for surrender

Athens Events in November - Athens

• Ton Taxiarchon Archangelou Michail kai Gavril - November 8th, ceremonies at the many rural monasteries and churches named after Arch angles Gabriel and Michael
• Eisodia tis Theotokou - November 21st, an important feast day celebrating the presentation of the Virgin in the Temple

Athens Events in December - Athens

• Agios Nikolaos - December 6th, St. Nicholas day celebrations at seaside churches (the patron saint of seafares, travellers, children and orphans)
• Christougenna - December 25th, Christmas Day in Athens is a national holiday and although less significant than Eater, it is still an important feast day in the city
• Synaxis tis Theotokou - December 26th, a national holiday, celebrating the religious meeting of the Virgin's entourage
• New Year's Eve - December 31st, many celebrations throughout Athens, seeing in the new year

 
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