Custom or festival
Epiphany
The blessing of the waters in the harbour: the cross thrown into the sea, church bells and the caiques’ horns.
- January 6
On Epiphany, after the Great Blessing at Agios Spyridonas, the faithful walk in procession down to the sea. When the priest throws the cross into the water, the bells ring out and the island’s caiques sound their horns without stopping.
The bravest dive into the cold water of the Laconian gulf to be the first to reach the cross; whoever brings it up, they say, will have luck and health all year. Then people return to the church and take holy water home for the house, the fields and the boats.
An old custom
In the old days the island’s fishermen came home from their voyages at the feast of St Demetrius and stayed on the island until Epiphany. They waited for “the waters to be blessed” and the sea to calm, and only then set off again.
