On this special August 15th broadcast, where we took listeners of Voice of Greece on a journey across various parts of Greece and the world to celebrate this significant day in Orthodoxy and Hellenism. We spoke with representatives of the Orthodox Church, including Bishop Eumenios in Melbourne, His Beatitude Theodoros II, Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, Metropolitan Ignatios of Demetrias, and Father Ioannis Nikolitssis, Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Throne and Archpriest of the Holy Metropolis of Austria.
The show began with Thomas Sideris, an ERT journalist and Ph.D. in Human Geography, who shared scenes from the Dormition celebrations on the island of Tinos. We then traveled to Kato Koufonisi, where Nikitas Skopelitis, a representative of the Koufonisi Association, described the annual tradition of visiting the chapel of Panagia by boat. From Gardiki Aspropotamou in Trikala, Vangelis Mitrousias captured the spirit of the village’s two-day festival.
We also heard how the villages in Arcadia celebrated the Dormition of the Virgin Mary from ERT correspondent Despina Arsenis. In Siatista, we met Despina Amarantidou just as the horsemen set out on their pilgrimage to the Monastery of Panagia in Mikrokastro. Finally, Evangelos Karamanes, director of the Center for Folklore at the Academy of Athens, unraveled the symbolism and customs of this grand celebration, uniquely observed by Greeks across the country.