Greek Orthodox religion believe that this is the date of the baptism of Jesus

This is the official ending of the twelve days of Christmas

This marks a special ceremony of the blessing of the waters in all churches, you go to church and receive blessed water to take home and add to food, especially for the sick, you may sprinkle it around your house to take away bad karma

The ports of Greece, fresh water as well as sea often have ceremonies of the water like the one at Piraeus, the ancient port of Athens, a priest hurls a large crucifix into the sea, then only the brave face the cold waters and compete to retrieve it, the winner is awarded with good luck for the year ahead, after the diving the fishermen bring their boats to be blessed

Look at the

Municipality of Arts in Athens web site for more details

The first day of Lent, clean the house, fly those kites, eat drink and be merry, as from today you will eat no meat, oil or dairy products for 40 days

On Philopappaou Hill and on Mount Yimitos are the two most public place to be at the start of lent, you fly your kites here and picnic on octopus, shrimp, bread, cod roe and sweet halvah while sipping wine and dancing to traditional Greek music

Holiday feasts are also held annually at Lycabettus Hill, the park at Veiko and on the pristine beaches along the Attica coast, where Athenians compete in a creative kite contest

Municipality of Arts in Athens

February and March are carnival months in Athens. Numerous events, both traditional and modern, celebrate the different regions of Greece and the city of Athens itself

Traditional customs, music, dance and song are on show as the people take to the streets

Traditional dances, serenades and mandolin music, rock ballards, piazzolla, tabors and rebetiko, cuban music, samba and tarantelle, jazz, acrobatics, violins, performances by well-known Greek artists and "gaitanaki".

Zapion is a well know centre for lots of organised entertainment, during the day for the children, at nigh for the adults

Please contact the Municipality of Arts in Athens closer to the event date for further information

What happens? During Holy Week, church bells and hymns can be heard all over the city and the intoxicating aroma of traditional Easter food emanates from local bakeries and homes

On Good Friday there are church services and parades, the highlight of which is the Greek Orthodox Churches' Epitaph procession and solemn candle vigil. This is especially spectacular to watch in Plaka, where the candle-holding faithful come together from neighbouring churches to create a winding path of light.

Holy Saturday, known as Anastasi, sees Athenians gather in church to celebrate the resurrection of Christ

At the stroke of midnight, the lights are extinguished, a candle is passed around the church and the congregation chant the hymn Xristos Anésti, or Christ is Risen, they wish each other well and the traditional mageiritsa soup is eaten by all

Easter Sunday is a day of feasting, Athens feels deserted as thousands have left for their villages and the streets are deserted, this is when Athens comes to a stop

Everywhere there is lamb on the spit, tsoureki (sweet bread loaves) and flaounes (Easter cakes), they hard boiled eggs are painted red and you go round crashing them against each others, if it does not crack, it is supposed to be very good luck

For us forigeners, we can find the odd restaurant that will offer the traditional Easter fare in Athens

Greek Orthodox Easter does not always fall on the same Sunday as the Catholic and Protestant festival as it is calculated using a different calendar

Monday is the relaxing day and travel back to work day

Mar - Apr

For two weeks every April, the Apollon-Renault Cinema Theatre and French Institute of Athens celebrate French cinema

The festival offers an opportunity to see French films released in the last year, along with retrospectives of important French directors

There are shorts and special screenings for students and children

Institut Français d'Athenes

31 Sina St 106 80

+30 (0) 210 339 8600

email: - ifa@ifa.gr

Apollon Renault Filmcenter

19 Stadiou St

+30 (0) 210 323 6811

May

Spring here and it is blooms all the way, Syntagma Square is flowers all day and night, booths are set up and the National Garden is the next stop

Athenian neighbourhoods have got in on the act now, but the whole show started in Kiffisia Park since 1930’s

An association to promote and develop contemporary art in Greece and beyond, includes paintings, installations, sculpture, video art and photography.

Guest countries are included each year

39 Kifissias Av 151 23 - Maroussi

+30 (0) 210 6168888

+30 (0) 210 6168800

May - June

Venue: - Technopolis

Costs: Free / Opening Hours: 9pm-12am

Top performers come together for the free European Jazz Festival at Gazi's Technopolis.

The festival was first held in 2001 and involved just a handful of countries. However, word of its success soon spread and each year a greater number of artists appear

Technopolis site

100 Pireos St 11854

+30 (0) 210 346 0981/1589

May- Jun

Athens' annual Eco Festival promotes environmentally-friendly living with music, theatre, exhibitions and other green activities

Since 1999 Clean Up Greece have organised this festival to promote respect for the environment through the medium of cultureEvents take place all over the city - please contact the organisers or visit their website for full details of the programme

Municipality of Arts in Athens

May - Sep

This summer arts festival in the outdoor Lycabettus Hill theatre offers a programme of exciting music and theatre events against a stunning backdrop. The impressive line-up for 2005 includes Faithless, Bebo Valdes Quartet, Duran Duran, Kansas, Patti Smith, Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, Franz Ferdinand, Gilberto Gil, the dance company Tango X2 and lyra players from Crete, as well as an Arcadian wedding

The climb up the hill may be steep, but Lycabettus offers some of the best views over

Athens. For exact details of the programme, please contact the tourist office or visit their website

Lycabettus Theatre

Lycabettus (Likavitos) Hill

+30 (0) 210 722 7233

+30 (0) 210 722 7209

July

The Acropolis Rally is a well-established round of the World Rally Championship (WRC). A tradition in Athens for the past 50 years, this car race takes off at the foot of the Acropolis, follows a route throughout Athens and finishes in the Panathenaic Stadium

“The race won the award for WRC Rally of the Year in 2005, when the Olympic Stadium's Super Special Stage wowed an audience of around 60,000 fans. In 2006, a new route took in some of the old stages from the 1980s. The Rally Centre, Media Centre and Service Park are all located at the Olympic Stadium.”

The FIA World Rally Championship has a global television audience of more than 800 million people in almost 200 countries

Olympic Stadium

Be there when it happens

Jun

Venue: Athens / Various

Costs: Free / Opening Hours: Various

Each summer solstice, members of the European Music Day network (aka Fête

Européenne de la Musique) organise free concerts all around their cities. Athens stretches the event to cover three days, with more than 100 free public performances to entertain the crowds

Unlike a music festival, which normally focuses on one composer or one specific type of music and follows a programme selected by an artistic director, European Music Day is a free event and is open to anyone who wants to perform

The event also encourages the major music institutions to perform outside their usual locations and to embrace styles of music outside their traditionally accepted genres

Preferred locations include the open-air, streets, parks, courtyards and museums. Stages crop up all over town, with big ones being used for the evening performances

For a full line-up of events, please visit the festival website

Jun - Jul

The annual Festival in the Shadow of the Rocks is held in the beautiful outdoor Theatre of the Rocks "Melina Merkouri". Drama groups from all over Greece perform a varied selection of ancient comedy and tragedy along with more modern productions

This wide ranging programme forms one of Greece's largest cultural festivals

Please telephone

Theatre of the Rocks

Tataoulon St 16232 Vironas

+30 (0) 2 10 7626438

Jun - Jul

At Km37 on the Athens-Lamia National road - the Malakasa interchange

The Rockwave Festival at Terra Vibe in Athens is the best full-on rock festival event in Greece

Also there is more entertainment provided for the patrons who are there all day like,

bungee jumping, a skate park, acrobats, stilt walkers and jugglers

For full details of the line-up, please visit the festival website

1 Jun - 31 Jul

Places: - Herodeion / Lycabettus Hill / Many Theaters / Platieas / Syntagma Square / Athens Concert Hall / Costs & Opening Hours: Various

The annual Athens Festival offers an exciting programme of cultural events over the summer months.

It includes some of the city's most impressive venues, Greek and international artists expressing music, dance and theatre to celebrate artistic performance in all its forms

The festival website publishes full details as soon as they are available

Or call: -

Athens Concert Hall

Vassilissis Sofias and Kokkali St 11521

+30 (0) 2 107 282 333

Lycabettus Theatre

Lycabettus (Likavitos) Hill

+30 (0) 210 722 7233

+30 (0) 210 722 7209

Jun - Sep

It is the alternative to the Athens Festival, music groups, singers, dancers and lots more but the organisation is a bit lax, getting info is left to those sites with an interest in having extreme music festivals

Or you could try

Petra Theatre

In the quarry area of Petroupolis suburb of Athens

+30 (0) 210 5065443

Jul 10 days

Since 1964, contestants from all over Greece and beyond have gathered to compete in the country's oldest and most prestigious sailing regatta which is now a nationwide sailing festival with many glamorous events preceding and follow the regatta

The event is organised by the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club (HORC) and consists of a series of three or four individual offshore races for super yachts, sport-racers and classics, all vessels great and small take part

It usually starts and finishes at Faliro Bay and takes in the beautiful islands of the Aegean

The overall distance covered varies between 250 and 400 nautical miles, depending on which islands are visited

Website

July

100 Different Booths, Crafts, Specialties, Parade, Food, Live Entertainment, Fireworks, Antique and Classic Car Show, Music and entertainment

Over 3 different venues

See website for details

Aug for 1 night only

Venue: - Athens (the Acropolis)

Costs: Free / Opening Hours: 9pm-1am

On the night of the full moon, the city of Athens opens up its monuments and archaeological sites to the public for free. Moonlit classical concerts and other events under the stars make for an enchanting midnight stroll through the ancient sites.

Please contact Athens Tourism for more details of the programme

Aug

Every summer, there is a popular choral festival in the town of Argostóli

The island is located in the Saronic Gulf

31 miles (50 km) from Athens

Ferries from Piraeus take 70 minutes

Municipal Theatre - +30 671 28 076

Sep

This year it is "Destroy Athens" concept, it is to encourage artists to destroy preconceptions and challenge the city's universal and timeless associations of what art is

Please visit the Athens Biennial website for the latest venue details and further information

Sep

The World Congress On Dance Research includes free public performances at the Peace and Friendship stadium

The event is the largest gathering of dance specialists worldwide, attracting 700 teachers, choreographers, researchers and journalists. Not to be confused with festivals, workshops, competitions or open conferences, it is an industry-only affair

The 21st annual World Congress on Dance Research is organised by the Dora Stratou Theatre in collaboration with UNESCO's International Dance Council. For information on the public programme, please visit the Dora Stratou website.

Peace and Friendship Stadium

Possidonos Ave

No official website found yet

But

It is being held at the Peace and Friendship stadium

Sep - Oct

The Athens International Film Festival - also known as the Opening Nights Festival - is a non-competitive international festival with an emphasis on lower-budget independent productions and American indie cinema

Founded in the mid-1990s, the Audience Award provides advertising funding for a Greek distributor

Regular programmes feature world cinema, American independents, avant premières, documentaries, shorts, retrospectives, films by Greek expatriates, retrospectives and an annual country focus. The festival has recently added a section dealing with "films whose style or content is provocative, innovative, experimental."

The festival website releases full details of this year's programme as soon as they are available

Attikon Cinema

19 Stadiou St 105 61

+30 (0) 210 322 8821

+30 210 3821394

Danaos Cinema

109 Kifisias Avenue & Panormou Street 115 24

+30 (0) 210 692 2655

Sep - Oct

This is to promote and seek new talent within the realm of photography

Activates, events and exhibitions feature in most galleries, artistic centres and art schools throughout the city, lectures, seminars and talks from artists in this field

Opening days run from mid-September to mid-October, but the exhibitions remain on display until the end of November

Visit the Hellenic Centre for Photography website for further details

Sep- Oct

Every year, Greek publishers and book lovers flock to the heart of the historical centre of Athens for the Athens Book Festival

Around 300 stalls line the Dionysiou Areopagitou pedestrian walkway on the foothills of the

Acropolis

+30 (0) 210 321 4172 or +30 210 321 0219 or +30 210 923 8724

+30 (0) 210 923 9023

Oct

Every year, the Technopolis complex at Gazi is flooded with people for the Vavel Comic Festival. Displays of comic art, concerts, street theatre performances and animated film screenings draw visitors from Greece and beyond.

New and successful talent in the field of comic book design and illustration is a major focus of the festival. Past exhibitions have also included exceptionally rare originals by pioneering American artists Alex Raymond, Chester Gould, Milton Caniff, Al Capp and Winsor McCay, and have featured classic heroes Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, Krazy Kat, Phantom, Tarzan, Rip Kirby, Cocco Bill and Valentina.

Technopolis

100 Pireos St 11854

+30 (0) 210 346 0981/1589

Oct

“The Panorama of European Cinema is Athens' biggest film festival. Now in its 20th year, cinephiles can enjoy films from around the globe and pay homage to their favourite cinema legends from Greece and beyond. Films are screened at the Ideal Cinema and Trianon Theatre.”

As part of the festival, Panorama has a special award that recognises well-known Greek artists and cinema legends for their contribution to film

The festival website publishes full details of this year's programme as soon as they are available

Trianon Theatre

21 Kodrigktonos St, Viktoria

+30 (0) 210 821 5469

Ideal Cinema

48 Panepistimiou St

+30 (0) 210 381 7594/4592

Nov

Most of the world's major cities have an annual marathon, but Athens hosts the original

Commemorating the famous run of the soldier Pheidippides in 490BC, the 42-kilometre (26.2-mile) race begins at the town of Marathon itself and ends up at the Panathenaic Stadium

For those unsure about whether they can last the whole 42 kilometres of the main race, there are also 10km and 5km road races. Participants must be 18 or older to compete

Nowadays, the run begins at the ancient battlefield of Marathon and winds past Mati, Rafina, Pikermi, Pallini, Stavros and Halandri before arriving at Panathenaic Stadium. The middle of the route is mildly hilly, but the rest of it is either flat or downhill, and the running surface is asphalt all the way

Municipality of Arts in Athens

4 , Neophytou Douka GR 10674 Athens

+3010 7228 321

+3010 7239 382

Dec

Cheap Art is a concept where art is both exhibited and made available for public purchase

The Cheap Art gallery in the bohemian neighbourhood of Exarchia which is the area around the Universities in Panapistimiou, plays host to this free annual showcase that exposes the work of over 250 up-and-coming artists and photographers

Going since 1995, it goes for what the artistic organisations think of as high risk art

25A A. Metaxa & Themistokleous St Athens 106 81

+30 (0) 210 3817517

or email your enquiries to Cheap Art Gallery

Dec- Jan for the 12 days of Christmas

Venue: - Syntagma Square

Opening Hours: 9am-9pm daily

Every December, Syntagma Square in Athens welcomes Christmas with decorations, entertainment and a chance to meet with the big man himself...

In 2006, 15 multi-hued wooden cabins in the the Town of Treats sell local pastries and sweets. Children can watch the elves as they create toys in Santa's Workshop, play and chat with St Basil himself (as he is known in Greece) and get to know his magical world

An antique carousel dating back to 1886 is also on display, featuring vividly-painted horses and charming carriages, and it wouldn't be Christmas without a big tree in the middle of the square, festooned with colourful balls and twinkling lights

Syntagma Square

May - Sep not Mon

“Every summer, Greek dancers perform at the renowned Dora Stratou Theatre to the backdrop of the Athenian Acropolis on Philopappou Hill. The dancers wear traditional costume and perform songs and dances which have been in existence for up to 2500 years. There is room for improvisation, which makes every night a unique one.”

Dance performances take place every day except Monday and last for one-and-a-half hours. The programme changes every two weeks, showcasing traditional dances from all over Greece.

Dora Stratou was a Greek folk enthusiast who dedicated her life to researching, recording and preserving her country's indigenous folk culture. With this in mind she founded a theatre, now known as the Dora Stratou Theatre, more than 35 years ago. The famous Greek painter Spyros Vassiliou helped her design it and since its launch the resident dance troupes have toured over 22 countries, receiving international acclaim.

The theatre seats 1000 people and by the new millennium, the 50-strong performers had entertained about two and a half million people, over the course of 5000 performances. Make sure you add to this impressive tally - it's well worth it!

Dora Stratou (Greek Dance) Theatre

Philopappou Hill

+30 210 324 4395 (9am-4pm); +30 210 921 4650 (after 7:30pm)

1 Oct - 31 May Thu only

Every Thursday evening during the winter, the Dora Stratou dance theatre holds free workshops on aspects of Greek dance and music - a wonderful opportunity to benefit from the expertise of teachers, historians, ethnologists and musicians from all over Greece

Including practical demonstrations, audio-visual shows and exhibitions, different theme or region is chosen each week including Rhythm, Ancient Greek Dance or Thracian Dance

The theatre also holds Greek dance classes on a daily basis in the winter and week-long summer workshops in English, so please contact them for further details

Advance registration is recommended as places are limited

Dora Stratou (Greek Dance) Theatre

Philopappou Hill

+30 210 324 4395 (9am-4pm); +30 210 921 4650 (after 7:30pm)