Events
The Cretans love to party and love their religious feasts so don’t miss the chance to enjoy them. The Cretan calendar is dotted with countless celebrations about specific local products, fruit and traditional foods (mainly during the summer months) and festivities celebrating local saints. The sea, the peaceful landscapes and the authenticity for which Cretans are renowned combine to set the perfect scene for those important days.
Some of the most popular tastefests in the Prefecture of Lasithi are: the Honey Festival and Mantinada Competition in Malles, the Almond Festival (Kroustas, Agios Nikolaos), the Corn Festival (Piskokefalo, Sitia), the Courgette Festival (Avrakontes), the Potato Festival (Tzermiado), the Olive Oil Festival (Kritsa & Ierapetra), the Myzithropita Festival (Kritsas), the “Alonemata” (Threshing) Festival (Kalamafka), the Honey Festival (Prina), the Boiled Food Festival (Tapes), the Carob Festival (Pinés) and the Sultana Raisin Festival (Sitia).
Chapel weddings
Crete is packed with small picturesque chapels and the Prefecture of Lasithi, with its beautiful romantic landscape, is no exception. Just some of them are the chapels at Pachia Ammos, Agios Nikolaos and Mochlos, which have been hosting wedding evens in recent years.
Religious festivals
On the feast day of the Transfiguration of Christ (6 August) tens of people choose to climb to Afendis Christos peak at an altitude of 2,141 m which is the second highest peak of the Lasithian mountains; pilgrims head to the remote chapel of Metamorfosi Sotiros dedicated to the Transfiguration of Christ to break the bread.
Other important feast days are: 20 July, Profitis Ilias (dedicated to the Prophet Elijah and held in Mesa Mouliana), 26 July, Agia Paraskevi (dedicated to Orthodox St. Paraskevi and held in Ziro), 6 August, Metamorfosi Sotiros (dedicated to the Transfiguration of Christ and held in Exo Mouliana, Zakros), 29 August, Agios Ioannis Prodromos (dedicated to St John the Baptist and held in Dafni), 14 September, Timios Stavros (dedicated to the Holy Cross and held in Sfaka), 6 December, Agios Nikolaos (dedicated to St. Nicholas and held in the town of Agios Nikolaos).
Rakokazano (Raki Cauldron)
Marriage Bread
Cretan Pentozali Dance
