Each year on Alonissos there is a Carnival celebration on the last Sunday prior to Clean Monday and the start of Lent.  There is a large non-Greek population on the island that take part in Carnival every year and you are welcome to stay at Villa Alicia and join us for the celebration.  Each year the date of Carnival varies due to the variaton in the date of Greek Easter and every year we have a different theme for Carnival.  The dates for Greek Easter for the next 5 years can be viewed here.  The end of carnival season is approximately seven Sundays before Greek Easter, so next year we expect carnival to be held on Sunday 14th February 2010 and the following year to be held on Sunday 6th March 2011.  We will confirm dates with you at time of booking.

If you would like to join us for carnival then we will inform you of the theme for the year so that you can organise your costume.  In 2009 a pre carnival party was held on Saturday night at 9pm at the Arhondostasi (a.k.a Mary's Bar) in the Old Village organised by Dora who was running the bar that year.  There was a lovely party atmosphere created by Dora and her husband "DJ" Vangelis with the first half of the evening English music, followed by Greek dance music.  We hope the same will happen in 2010.

We have taken part in the 2008 carnival when the theme was Cowboys and Showgirls and in 2009 when the theme was Woodstock to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the music festival.  You can see below a picture from each of the last two years carnivals to give you a taste of how we all looked on the day.  Carnival starts at the Dimos (council) offices in Patitiri around 2pm and the floats start to congregate around 1pm.  Before the off everyone introduces their theme and we are provided free with one 10 litre wine box and a bottle of scotch.  This will ease us through the day which will last for about 8 hours!!  Can you spot us in the Woodstock photo?   Lyn is the hippy chick with the red head band under the T of Woodstock and Nik is holding his guitar with a red head band to the left.

The carnival procession does a loop around Patitiri and then wends its way along the main road to the playground at Votsi.  There are frequent stops along the way for food, drink and dancing.  This is especially so at Votsi where you will be invited to take part in the carnival dance, a picture of which you can see below.  This memory will remain with you for the rest of your lives and the pictures we will take will remind you of a totally unique experience.  After the dancing at Votsi the carnival procession heads back to Patitiri and to a taverna for food, drink and dancing.  We arrive back at Villa Alicia whenever we are ready to go.

This is a never to be forgotten experience which will be available only to one couple per year.  To ensure that you do not miss out please contact us as early as possible to avoid disappointment.  The theme for 2010 is being discussed now and is likely to be Harry Potter.

Easter in Greece lasts 100 days with the 50 days before Easter known as the period of Triodion and the 50 days following Easter known as the Pentecostarion.  During Holy Week prior to Easter Sunday the traditional foods are prepared and evening services follow the Passion of Christ.  After vespers on Easter Friday the bier (Epitaphios) of Christ is carried through the streets.  The Resurrection mass (Anastasis) takes place on Saturday evening and at midnight the ceremony of lighting of candles takes place which is the most significant moment of the year.  The 40 day Lenten fast ends on Easter Sunday with the cracking of red-dyed eggs and an outdoor feast of roast lamb.

Here on Alonissos we congregate down the harbour front with our brown candles on Easter Friday to watch the procession as it moves along the port area and back to the church of Agia Paraskevi for the remainder of the service.  On Saturday we go down to Patitiri to the church around 11.30pm with our white candles and mingle with the crowd outside the church waiting for midnight to get our candles lit from the flame that Father Avraam brings into the church from the holy of holies behind the alter screen.  We then have to get our lit candle back to the house and make a cross above the door for a year's good luck before it goes out.

Greek Orthodox Easter and Catholic/Protestant Easter are not at the same time each year due to the different methods used in calculating the date of Easter Sunday.  The Greek Orthodox Church uses a version of the Julian calendar whereas the other churches use the Gregorian calendar.  They also use different orientations of the full moon as the basis for their calculation.  However, by odd coincidence the dates of Greek Orthodox and Catholic/Protestant Easter Sunday for the next 2 years fall on the same day and the dates are shown below.