The Orange Feast & Other Panigiria-Celebrations

The Orange Feast is a festival that has been recently established by the municipality of Chania. It takes place every year around the end of July in Skines village. Skines is located next to Alikianos, which is the best village in the world and also happens to be the village I’m from ;-)! Skines is about a 25-minute drive from Chania downtown. Feasts are very popular in Crete and there are plenty of them during summertime. I strongly recommend checking to see if one is taking place while you’re in Chania. It will be an unforgettable and unique experience!

Reason to go

Panigiri is the Greek word for feast. Traditionally, a feast or a panigiri was a celebration that took place in every village on the name’s day of its patron Saint, right after the Liturgy. In the old days, these feasts and wedding celebrations were the only occasions when people gathered to have fun, eat, drink, dance and flirt. The majority (I would have said all, but I’m trying to be humble) of Cretan locals, including myself, take a lot of pride in our traditions. This includes our music, dances and food. For this reason, wedding celebrations and feasts are similar to each other and are great ways to see important aspects of Cretan culture on display.

In both traditional panigiria-feasts and weddings you can expect to see

A band of local musicians playing traditional Cretan music

People performing traditional Cretan dances

Traditional Cretan dishes such as:

Gamopilafo

Gamos means wedding and pilafi means risotto, and it is a delicious traditional dish of Chania! The success of this dish lies in the fact that the rice is cooked in broth from high quality meat (from home-raised, free-range goats and chickens).

Graviera

A yellow, semi-hard cheese that is usually served with honey.

Kreatotourta

A traditional pie with meat, myzithra (a soft, white cheese) and mint.

Alatsolies

Salt-cured olives accompanied by traditional rusks called paximadia.

Ntakos or Dakos

A traditional salad made with paximadia (rusks), grated tomato and myzithra (a soft, white cheese) sprinkled with oregano and olive oil.

How about the less traditional Panigiria – Feasts?

In recent years, Cretan wedding celebrations have become more westernized, i.e. there might be a DJ playing some 80s hits during the wee hours of the morning (right after the Cretan music). Also, some of of the traditional panigiria have become more simplified, i.e. instead of serving the time-intensive risotto, gamopilafo, they serve pork souvlaki with some bread and a salad. The good news is there are still plenty of feasts that remain very traditional! I highly recommend scheduling one of the more traditional feasts or crashing a traditional Cretan wedding during your visit. Ok, that last part was a joke, but traditional Cretan weddings are so much fun!

In addition to people’s high spirits, the dancing, good vibes and amazing food, another thing that amuses me when I visit a panigiri in Crete is the lottery. There’s almost always a lottery and the way it works is that you buy some tickets and at some point, usually after people have eaten, the music stops and they start drawing the winning numbers. The prizes are donated by local businesses and public figures (i.e. the priest) who are sort of obligated to contribute something. For this reason, they tend to give items that relate to their line of work so the prizes can really be anything. Last year, for example, my friend won a living, breathing pig. Typical prizes include: a bottle of tsikoudia (the Cretan Grappa), a bottle of car oil, 30€ of gas from the local gas station and a dinner for two at the local taverna. The money that is collected from the lottery tickets either covers the cost of organizing next year’s feast or any other purpose the committee considers appropriate (i.e. renovating the primary school etc.). For this reason, It’s considered bad manners for a business or shop to not participate.

How to determine if a panigiri is traditional

My recommendation is to go to a traditional feast if you can! You’ll taste some amazing Cretan food and you’ll also be served while seated. The latter is convenient and comfortable as opposed to waiting in lines to buy drinks and snacks from stands. But how can you tell if a feast is traditional? One of the simplest ways to find out is to ask if gamopilafo, the traditional Cretan risotto, will be served. You can also ask if there will be an entrance fee. At most traditional feasts, there’s an entrance fee of 13-20€ which includes all you’re going to eat and drink (or most of it). This usually means a salad, two main courses (the gamopilafo and pork with potatoes), cheese, olives, wine and tsikoudia (the traditional Cretan spirit that is similar to Italian Grappa). Sodas and beers, however, are almost never included in the entrance fee. For feasts that don’t charge an entrance fee, you pay as you consume. So for example, you can buy as many souvlaki sticks, cans of beer or bottles of wine as you’d like and you’ll just pay for each item. Souvlaki sticks usually cost 1-2€ each and a can of beer is about the same. There will be no service and you’ll get everything from different food & drink stands. Some feasts might charge a small entrance fee, like 3-5€, which pays for the band playing Cretan music.

These modern festivals are a great option if you aren’t able to visit one of the more traditional feast days. Although you won’t find the delicious gamopilafo, you will still experience a unique local celebration that will make your trip unforgettable!

The Orange Feast that I have here as an example, is actually free of charge! At the entrance local villagers offered free orange juice to everyone. Later when we sat down, we were all served gamopilafo (Cretan risotto) along with some goat meat. The orange juice and the food were free; we only paid for our drinks. Generally speaking, panigiria — feasts — can be very different from one another! They often differ in cost, type of food served, having live music or not and so on. Some even take place at noon, right after the morning Liturgy! If you’re interested in going to a panigiri, check out my post Best Panigiria – feasts in Chania from April to October. You could also check this Facebook page that shares information about feasts and similar events in Crete: https://www.facebook.com/Panigiria.Kritis/. It’s in Greek, but your Greek host or a friendly local can help with the translation! As the page has become quite popular, the last time I checked it, it was sponsored by a Greek beer. I’m just mentioning this, so you don’t get confused.