August 15th is a very important day in many European countries including Greece. This is the feast of the assumption! There are two important celebrations in Greece. The first is Easter and the second is August 15th. We have migrated to our home village of Tsouretho to work our way up to Perthiki for the celebration.
First, we go to church in Perthiki. The village is beautiful and there was a tree by the church that was gorgeous. It was explained that this tree was called an “Argo”. Here is the thing about Greece that I love. Mythology comes to life if you pay attention. Why is this tree important? I have added a link explaining the story of this type of tree because sometimes we cross over from what we think we know to Greek mythology everywhere you look.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo
On with the day! Church is over and the festival begins. Opa! We drank, danced and laughed. I saw about 100 people from the states and it was quickly turning into a daylong party and I mean the ENTIRE day. This day is not for the weak. LOL. By 8pm one of my cousins had to retire because we were 8 hours into the celebration. My other cousin and I were not quitters and we started thinking about leaving around 3:30am. It took us another hour before we actually left. About 15 minutes into our walk down the mountain back to Tsouretho another cousin was driving by and gave us a ride. By the time we got to the family homestead it was littered with other cousins who needed a place to sleep so after I surveyed the house all that was left was the kitchen table. Yes, that is where I slept.
Morning arrived quickly considering it was morning when I went to sleep. I needed to get up so I wouldn’t miss my ride back to Agios. Mom left the panayiri early so she was waiting for me back in town. Mom took pity on me and we went and grabbed breakfast when I arrived. We headed to Moustafa for the rest of the day. We swam and relaxed and I was ready for the next round with the cousins in the platia (plaza). From there we headed to Ftero, which back then was the bar, night scene. If you google it you will see it closes at 5am. That is the kind of schedule I have been on since I have been here. Who needs sleep?!
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