THE PREFECTURE OF RETHYMNO - THE EVENTS IN: SIVRITOS

August: Various cultural events in all the local districts of the municipality in dates defined every year
(there are announcements).

Events throughout the year

Local district of Gerakari

• 1st of January: New year’ Cake cut in the chamber of the cultural association
• Clean Monday: Celebration of the Lent come by making a multi-coloured- ribbon-pole (gaitanaki)
• Good Saturday: burn of Judas’ model
• Easter day: celebration in all the village gathering in houses
• 1st of May: celebration in the country - making of garlands with flowers
• 8th of May: Saint Ioannis celebration, big festival with food and drink
• 19th of July: On Prophet’s Helias celebration Eve people climb the mountain where the homonymous church is, they spend the night there celebrating with food and drink.
• 20th of July: A feast in the village square completes the celebration of Prophet Helias
• 22nd of August: memorial service for the heroes killed by the German conquerors on the 22nd-8-1944
• First fortnight of November: Kazanemata: distillation of Raki (local drink), during which people celebrate with food and raki.

Local district of Vrisses

• 26th of July (celebration of saint Paraskevi): feast at Kardaki
• 15th of August (dormition of the Maddona): feast at the village
• 22nd of August: memorial service for the heroes killed by the German conquerors on the 22nd-8-1944

Local district of Kalogerou

• 1st of January: New year’ Cake cut with the participation of all the residents and visitors. Women cook traditional dishes
• 18th of January (celebration of saint Athanasios and Kirillos): The whole village becomes a big company, singing, dancing and playing traditional musical instruments (lira, laouto)
• March: During the carnival and on Clean Monday, people celebrate the coming of the Lent, women cook traditional dishes an various games and events take place
• July: one- day excursion somewhere in Crete
• December: Edition of calendar with pictures of the life in the village and singing of Christmas carols in all the houses

Local district of Meronas

Meronas is a village with rich tradition, which there is a big effort to be kept alive even nowadays, through cultural events that are organized. At the feasts of the local saints that are celebrated throughout the year, all the residents go to the country churches and a festival follows the ceremony. Marriage in Meronas is carried out with all the traditional customs.

• 1st of January: New year’ Cake cut with the participation of all the residents and visitors. Women cook traditional dishes
• Clean Monday: Celebration of the Lent come by making a multi-coloured- ribbon-pole (gaitanaki), celebration with a traditional cretan musical group and traditional events (games and sketches):

sketches
• Lerades
• The bear
• Chotzas
• The cobbler
• The wedding
• The Camel

Games:
• The Pepper
• The Chairs
• The old woman’s heap

• During the Holy Week the children of the village gather chops of wood, they collect them somewhere near the church and this is called “Orfanos” (orfan), which together with a model of Judas, they burn in the night of the Resurrection. On Holly Thursday the residents of the village bring garlic in the church so that it will be blessed and then they eat it in order to keep them safe from scorpions’ and other insects’ bites. On Holly Saturday, before the bells ring for the Resurrection, groups of children go around the village ringing horse-shoe shaped peaces of iron and they invite the residents of the village to go to the church. Then each family - man sets fire to a big peace of prickle called “Achinopoda” outside his house and goes to church.
• On the first week after Easter the housewives sweep their houses only with azogiros a kind of bush, so that insects and bugs won’t get into their house
• Night of the Resurrection: fireworks
• 1st of May: celebration in the area of Saint Nicolaos
• Celebration of the holy Spirit ib Xiloskali
• 23rd- 24th of June: event for the opening of Klidonas
• July: Traditional threshing of the wheat seeded by the members of the association
• 27th of July: day on which the patron saint, saint Panteleimon, is celebrated, a big feast is organized in the village.
• August: threshing in a traditional way
• August: organisation of a theatrical play or musical event in cooperation with the municipality of Sivritos. Especially this summer the play which was presented had to do with Georgios Chortatsis: “Chortatsis and Ergina” (Georgios Hatzidakis).
• August: Organisation of artistic photo exhibition or other event
• August: One-day excursion in some place of Crete
• October: Kazanemata: distillation of Raki (local drink), during which people celebrate with food and raki, telling traditional legends and old stories
• November: Wheat seeding in traditional way
• Christmas period: Traditional decoration of the village, singing Christmas and
• New Years’ carols accompanied by traditional music
• January: Edition of a calendar decorated with pictures of different scenes of life in the village

Fairs in other local districts of the municipality

Sights

Meronas: Church dedicated to Panagia (Virgin)
In the centre of the village of Meronas is the Byzantine church of the Panagia (Virgin). The architecture of the church is distinctive because the dome is supported on the north side of the church. The three aisles of the church are unequal in length and of different ages. On the back walls of the church there are blind arches in each one of the three semicircles of the apses. Above the door is the coat-of-arms of Kalergis (an important Cretan family during the Venetian era). The doors and windows are elegantly carved, and a there is also a decorative melon carving. As well as some very distinctive frescoes the church also contains a fourteenth century icon of the Panagia. The village priest has the church key.

Apostoli: Church dedicated to Agios Nikolaos
The cemetery church of Agios Nikolaos contains fourteenth and fifteenth century frescoes and the paintings of the donor, the man in a strange white gown, are shown. The church, to the right up the steps in the village, has a superb view of the Amari valley. The village priest has the key.

Monastiraki: Church dedicated to Michael Archangelos
The Byzantine church of Michael Archangelos is on a small square in the village. It has an elegantly carved front door and pleasant decorations on the windows. There is only one fresco in this church, that of the Assumption of the Virgin, but it is of very good quality. The bell of the church has drawings of Michael Archangelos and the date 1601 on it.

Lambiotes: Church dedicated to Panagia (Virgin)
In Lambiotes is the Byzantine church of the Panagia which contains frescoes with a western influence. There is also a coat of arms on a tomb on the exterior wall of the church. Follow a dirt road starting below the main road at the end of the village. The church is about 500 metres below.

Lambiotes: Church dedicated to Agios Georgios
The church of Agios Georgios in the west part of the village has a well- preserved fresco of the Virgin and Child.

Gerakari: Church dedicated to Agios Ioannis Theologos
The area of Gerakari contains several old churches. In the location Foti, on the main road, is the Byzantine church of Agios Ioannis Theologos with well-preserved thirteenth century wall paintings. The church is a single room and has a narthex in front of it and a dome. The dome is decorated with blind arches made with bricks.

Pantanassa: Church dedicated to Agios Ioannis and Agia Triada
Just before entering the village, on the road, is the two-aisled Byzantine church of Agios Ioannis and Agia Triada. The two aisles are separated with arches with relief decorations in the form of melons. Externally, the church has very attractive door decorations and an inscription of 1645 on its bell tower. Inside there is a grave with an coat of arms, inscriptions and decorations.

Amari: Church dedicated to Agios Theodoros
The Byzantine church of Agios Theodoros at the far end of the village on a dirt path (signposted) has a few frescoes and inscriptions from 1588. The church has a bell with a relief of the Panagia.