Our Feedback . . .
We are home from Greece and would like to thank you for your assistance with our travel arrangements there.
Everything went smoothly and we LOVE your country.
Thanks for your suggestions and help making our vacation truly memorable.
I will definitely recommend you to my friends here in the US.
–Liz Barnes
Our Feedback . . .
Dear All: You did a great job of selecting hotels and making our arrangements for this trip.
The hotels were all in great locations.
Overall we had a wonderful vacation in Greece
– Lloyd & Bobbie Ferguson USA
Dear Harry: I find your Greek web site amazing! I like getting hints from local people, these are more helpful than travel guides
– Ilona Mersdorf DE
People Are Saying . . .
Harry: your site rocks! Its commercial but you can tell its not just about the money!
thank you! – Gerry Lagos USA
Finally, when we already thought this was a supremely memorable vacation, we ended up in Santorini, which Anthony had booked for us, in one of the most fabulous vacation spots we have ever been in.
Thanks so much to Harry's Greece Travel Guide for helping to make this such a great trip! - Bob and Deb Simeone USA
Selected for quality, location, price.
Hotels for every budget!
Lux to Economy !
Thank YOU!. . .
Dear All: You did a great job of selecting hotels and making our arrangements for this trip.
The hotels were all in great locations.
Overall we had a wonderful vacation in Greece
– Lloyd & Bobbie Ferguson USA
Thank YOU!. . .
Dear All: You did a great job of selecting hotels and making our arrangements for this trip.
The hotels were all in great locations.
Overall we had a wonderful vacation in Greece
– Lloyd & Bobbie Ferguson USA
Selected for quality, location, price.
Hotels for every budget!
Lux to Economy !
6 January Epiphany Fota, Aghia Theofania--
Epiphany: bodies of water are baptized - blessed by the priests
This holiday commemorates the baptism of Christ in the Jordan River, which explains the custom of boys diving into the waters on that winter day (sea, lake, river) competing to find the cruxifix tossed there by the local priest. Greeks, as everyone remembers, are to this day, a sea faring people.
All bodies of water are blessed by the priests, and in the church, fresh water thus blessed is brought home by the local people to their families to drink, to sprinkle on/in their houses, on their animals, crops, and wine barrels.
In seaside areas, many people bring farm implements or the family icon to wash them in the sea, recalling the ritual of the ancient Athenians who carried the statue of the goddess Athena to the coast at Faliron to purify it in the sea.
The Kalikantzari or Goblins
Going hand in hand with these rites of purification is the banishing to the underground of the 'kalikantzari', best translated as 'hobgoblins', both mischievous and evil, who run around teasing people during the twelve days of Christmas (25 Dec to 6 Jan). They are pictured as goat-like creatures, both dark and hairy, who get into houses through the chimneys (interestingly, just like Santa Claus in the west), with people building fires to keep them out and keeping the ashes later as charms against evil in both home and the fields.
The combination of hairy, goat-like bodies, and mischievousness point quite obviously to their symbolic connection with the pre Christian pagan earty deity Pan.
