15th of August

August the 15th is one of the most significant public holidays in Greece, celebrated as the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, marked by religious devotion for those who believe, cultural festivities and communal gatherings across the country.

Many regions hold panigiria, featuring food, music and dancing. It is moreover, a public  holiday and many people take the opportunity to travel quite often to their hometowns or the islands to see relatives and participate in the festivities. 

For approximately three weeks Athens is empty - so many people have left, many businesses are closed, and there is very little traffic. We love Athens in August and would not dream of going elsewhere as it's just to lovely, quiet and peaceful.

In one of the suburbs near us there is a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and every year they have a panigiri of sorts, not music and dancing but lots of stalls where about everything is sold. The church is quite magnificent

First thing you notice is the queue of people waiting patiently to go inside and kiss the Virgin Mary's icon

But, we are here for the market, so we move off

roast sweetcorn

and hundreds of icons for sale

and books ... this is one of the largest stalls

and lots of stalls selling loukoumades

they are a bit like doughnuts, but deep fried and sold hot

everything you can imagine, is sold here - socks and underwear

clothes

jewellery

toys

it's endless

handbags

more loukoumades - this time covered in different sauces, moving away from tradition

ceramics - gross

every other stall seems to be loukoumades

soft furnishing and bedding

toys

A chaos of shoes - all for 5 euros

I love the way they arrange these trainers

Is everything 5 euros? This time it's T-shirts

A wonderful stall selling nuts and dried fruit

herbs and teas

and spices.

Sunglasses

and yes, guess...

cakes

perfume

luggage

electronic accessories

A kebab and sausage stall - they don't make you fat but they do make you beautiful

African ornaments

kareoke microphones

smoking paraphernalia. There really is everything for sale here.

We were ready to start heading for home and then we heard the music - went to investigate: a band

choir boys

priests - a procession parading the icon around the area.