Page:The nomads of the Balkans, an account of life and customs among the Vlachs of Northern Pindus (1914).djvu/57

 up purely for a holiday can rarely afford to remain for the whole time. The earliest day for families to start to go up to Samarina is St George’s day, April 23rd (May 6th N.S.), when the shepherds first leave the plains on their way up to their summer camping grounds near their native villages. But the time when the bulk of the ordinary trading folk go up is at the end of May, in time for the fair of St Akhillios at Ghrevena, the first of the great festivals that mark the full summer season. The end of the full season is marked by the lesser festival of St Mary on September 8th (September 2ist N.S.) after which the ordinary people begin to leave the village. The shepherds stay on till the day of St Demetrius, October 26th (November 8th N.S.) on which day they start to go down to their winter quarters. From then till next St George’s day the village is all but deserted and inhabited only by those who have made up their minds to spend the winter there either as guards or for other reasons. The course of the full summer season between the fair of St Akhillios and St Mary the Less, as the festival is called, is marked by three great feasts which divide it into four sections of about equal length, and those who are unable to come up for the whole summer, will arrange their work so as to be able to spend one of these divisions between two festivals in their native village. The first feast is that of the Holj^ Apostles, St Peter and St Paul, on June 29th (July 12th N.S.). Next comes the festival of St Elijah (Aigl'a or Sand Iliú) on July 20th (August 2nd N.S.). Then on August 15th (August 28th N.S.) is the great annual festival of the Assumption, the festival of St Mary (StāmārieStâmărie [sic]) the patroness of Samarina. This all truly patriotic natives of Samarina endeavour to attend, and if they can come up at no other time during the summer they will come for a week at Stāmārie. At it the year’s weddings are celebrated, the village dances are held on the green of the great church of Stămăria (Plate IV 2) and in the days succeeding it betrothals are made for next year. Between this day and the lesser festival of St Mary there is, as all Samarina folk boast, more merrymaking than in the whole of the rest of summer put together. Apart from