As elsewhere in Greece, numerous local religious festivals, known as panigyria, are organised in the villages and towns of Crete on the feast days of Orthodox Christian saints, particularly during the summer. Besides their religious and pilgrimage significance, these festivals bring local communities together and help preserve the island’s customs and traditions. After the Divine Liturgy and other religious ceremonies, the celebration often moves to the village square, where music and dancing continue until the early hours of the morning.

One of Crete’s most remarkable religious customs is the reenactment of the Nativity on Christmas Eve inside Marathokefala Cave, with people and animals creating the atmosphere of a living Nativity scene. At Marmaketo on the Lassithi Plateau, local tradition holds that the dried wild orchids used to decorate the Epitaphios on Good Friday are kept in the church and bloom again during the feast of Saint John the Theologian on 8 May. At Agios Thomas and in parts of the Asterousia Mountains, churches are encircled with waxed cords to keep evil away, perpetuating beliefs with ancient roots.

Carnival is celebrated enthusiastically throughout Crete, with dozens of customs whose origins reach far into the past. The Apokrigiomata festivities at Gergeri, the Carnival Mask of Sivas, the Camel custom and many other traditional performances have been revived in recent years as local communities seek to preserve their intangible cultural heritage.

Customs intended to bring healing or protection to the faithful also remain alive. In Sfakia, worshippers offer small human-shaped figures made of dough to Saint Anthony in the hope of being cured of illness. On Psiloritis, human-shaped loaves known as lazaropsoma are offered during memorial services. In the past, during the feast of Agia Pelagia, worshippers buried aching parts of their bodies in the sand of Agia Pelagia Beach, believing that this would bring relief. At Saint Fanourios at Ahlade, visitors pass through an opening in the rock and leave clothes or personal belongings on a sacred terebinth tree as an offering for health and protection.

Some of Crete’s most distinctive customs are observed during Easter. They include the auction of the Cross, the passing of sheep beneath the flower-decorated Epitaphios, the burning of Judas on a large bonfire, carrying the Holy Light home in silence and placing red eggs on graves. At Asi Gonia and Karoti in the Rethymno region, shepherds bring their flocks to the church on the feast of Saint George to receive the priest’s blessing. The animals are then milked and the milk is distributed among the worshippers.

The Klidonas custom is celebrated on 24 June, the feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, with bonfires and traditional divination rituals. On the feast of the Transfiguration of Christ, worshippers offer the first or ripest grapes at church so that their vineyards may be blessed. On the same day, at Afendis Peak in the Dikti Mountains, some pilgrims search the soil around the church for old coins regarded as powerful talismans. On 3 November, the feast of Saint George “Methystis”, meaning “the one who makes people drunk”, the barrels containing the year’s new wine are traditionally opened.