Festivals of Ikaria

The island of Ikaria is famous for festivals of, both for their large number and for the large attendance of people but mainly for incredible fun and for mass participation in Ikarian dance. It makes a great impression that they are the only religious festivals in the Aegean that one pays for one's food.

We will try to interpret the facts so that people understand some of the things behind the fleeting images.

The Greek state, until at least the beginning of the 1980s, had deleted Ikaria from its stores. The marriage of the particularly disobedient Ikarians - with the "socialist daily life" - with the 13.000 political exiles (among them Manos Katrakis, Mikis Theodorakis, Manolis Anagnostakis and many others), created on the island a mixture of central power with the resulting in minimal resources being allocated to the red island. Without any state support, the Ikarians do not give up. By decision of the Prefecture in the early 1960s, during the period of great poverty, the old ecclesiastical committees were transformed into associations in order to help the poor small communities of the island. They turn to their many relatives and friends and turn their festivals, from simple coenobitic celebrations that were once, into a means of financing.

At the festivals the visitors paid to raise money for community service projects. Thus, they built the various works that each village needed - the rural roads, the aqueducts, the squares, the ports - declaring, of course, a general mobilization. The permanent residents left their jobs and offered voluntary work, the immigrants tried in every way to be in their village on the days of the festival and to help with money and work. Even the saints participated, gladly accepting to change their feasts to coincide with all the months of summer, when the world would come, so that the festivals would have the necessary mass and success.

Even now that some projects have been funded by the state, Ikarian festivals are an occasion to find money for social purposes, scholarships, etc.

As for the ritual of the festival, after the service follows the food and drink. The food is usually grilled braised meats and is accompanied by pilaf boiled in goat broth. Cooks and waiters are volunteers serving on some huge wooden "railroad trays".

The records come and go uninterruptedly, while the laminated wine - red wine from the local varieties, Fokiano, Syriki and Kountouro - flows abundantly everywhere.

In the beginning the musicians play European dances - a custom observed in most of the Aegean islands -, fox agnle, tango, dances performed by immigrants or sailors. Next are the balls, the sirtos and the karsilamades. Immediately after the Ikarian dance.

As soon as the first bow is heard, the track fills up in seconds, and the dancers, embracing each other tightly on the shoulders, dance the Ikarian, the dance with which locals and foreigners are ecstatic. Initially the dance is circular, then it becomes a spiral, which closes inwards, to fit everyone, and in a little while a sea of ​​dancers is created that you do not know where it starts and where it ends. At some point there is no man who does not dance. Even those who do not know him get up to take a turn. They are carried away by the whirlwind of frantic dancers. You do not need to know the steps, just follow with your eyes closed and your feet left to the rhythm of the violin.

The festivals of Ikaria are close to 100. There are days like Prophet Elias, or Agia Paraskevi or Panagia on the 15th of August when festivals take place in 4 to 8 villages at the same time.

Fortunately, the program of the festivals is announced on all local websites as well as in printed programs.

No one should leave Ikaria unless they spend at least one magical night at its festivals!