Public Holidays And Festivals

The Paxos International Music Festival will take place in 2007 between 28th August and 6th September, with concerts almost daily. The Festival is run by the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and classical works are performed by students of the school. The Festival takes place in Loggos.
The Spring Music Festival is also held in Loggos, usually in May,with Greek performers.
In June every year there is also a Paxos Jazz Festival at various open-air venues, which attracts internationally-known musicians.

Each area of Greece has its own local dances, however the dance know as the 'lakamatianos' is performed everywhere and Paxos is no exception. It is the dance where dancers stand in a row with their hands on each other's shoulders.
The traditional dances are performed during celebrations for Saints days, Village festivals and weddings.

If you should happen to be in Paxos on the 15th of August, you'll want to join those who gather at the Monastery of Panagia ( Moni Panagias ). The festivities last all day and all night, winding up in Gaios with dancing in the main square.

The 'Bouzouki' is an ancient musical instrument which you may probably hear many times on the island of Paxos. It is a mandolin-like instrument which plays a major part in the music on the island as well as throughout the whole of Greece.

10th February - Festival of Aghios Charalambos, the patron Saint of Paxos
25th March - Independence Day: commemoration of the beginning of the Greek fight for freedom in 1821
Moveable - Good Friday: churchgoers carry lighted candles and follow the procession of the ￿Epitaph￿.
Moveable - Saturday of Holy Week: the ￿Ceremony of the Resurrection￿ takes place in the evening and church bells chime at midnight to celebrate the Resurrection.
Moveable - Easter Sunday: traditionally families will get together to enjoy a whole lamb roasted on an open air spit.
Moveable - Easter Monday: on Paxos there is a procession from the Church of Our Lady on Panayia Island in Gaios to the Church of Aghios Yiorgos in Vellantatika.
1st May - Labour Day and Flower Festival.
21st May - The Ionian Islands commemorate their unification with Greece in 1864, when the British allowed Paxos and the rest of the Ionian Islands to join the Kingdom of Greece.
15th August - Assumption of the Virgin Mary on the small island of Panayia situated at the inlet to Gaios Harbour. On of the most celebrated days on the island of Paxos and throughout all Greece.
28th October - "Ochi Day," ( ￿No￿ day) In commemoration of Greece's historical "no" reply to one of Mussolini's ultimatums in 1940. Parades and wreath-laying ceremonies at all war memorials.
12th December - St. Spiridon procession.
26th December - St Stephen￿s Day.