With religious interest
Patmos is world famous for the Cave where John the Apostle wrote the Holy Book of Revelation. It is equally well known for its magnificent Monastery that has dominated the top of the island’s Hora for almost a millennium and boasts unique world heritage relics. Finally, it is known for its famous ritual of the Lord’s Supper, a re-enactment of the Last Supper in which Christ appears to wash the feet of his disciples. This is a ceremony which has been performed continuously every Maundy Thursday on the island of Patmos for 400 years, even during the Turkish occupation. Today, this ceremony takes place in a public place, only on Patmos and in Jerusalem.
However, apart from the popular ones, there is also a series of religious events, where the ecclesiastical element marries with the secular, tradition merges with customs and all this is worthy of great attention. The name days and the corresponding celebration of the ecclesiastical feasts of the same name have always been of particular importance to the local community. Each chapel is usually the responsibility of a family, which looks after it as an autonomous member of its own family and takes care to organise a ‘coffee party’ on the eve of the feast and after the evening service.
It is a small celebration during which greek coffee and all kinds of savoury and sweet goodies prepared with local products and lots of love are offered. On the occasion of this event, the “neighborhood” used to gather from the old days and socialize, exchanging news, laughs and teasing. In the same way, this still happens today with an expanded composition of the “neighborhood”, including not only the locals, informed friends, but also the “initiated” travelers of the island.
There are, of course, the bigger celebrations during which the simple drinking of coffee turns into a real feast, a feast that often lasts until dawn!
These feasts are
- on the eve of St. Panteleimon, which is celebrated on July 27. The chapel is located on the island of Chiliomodi, outside the bay of Skala. People go there by boats leaving from the port of Skala.
- on the day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, on 15 August, at the Panagia of Geranos, in the area of Geranos, which is located on the northeastern side of the island.
- on the ninth day of the death of Virgin Mary, on August 23, there is a big festival in Arki.
- on the eve of the feast of Agia Thekla, which is celebrated on September 24, in the chapel located on the homonymous small island opposite Agriolivadi.
