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 !
21 May Anastenaria (Fire Walking Ceremony)
The name of this custom, in which people walk or dance on live embers, comes from 'anastenazo' (to sigh or
groan) and is practiced in northern Greece by Thracian communities and by refugees from eastern Thrace (the portion of the
region of Thrace in present day Turkey) who were resettled in villages in eastern Macedonia (in Greece) with the 1923
compulsory exchange of Orthodox and Muslim populations between Greece and Turkey.
It is also practiced in Bulgaria, on the
other side of the border, (also part of Thrace, as these national borders, established only after the Balkan Wars and later,
after World War II, do not alter the unity of ancient regional cultures.
This ritual is practiced in agricultural
communities, and is most certainly related to fertility rites. Animals sacrificed in connection with this ritual must be
uncastrated, so that there fertility remains intact, and the slaughter carried out in such a way as to let the blood soak
into the earth.
Specific musical instruments are used for performance of this ritual, the lyra and daouli (see Musical
Instruments), though in Eastern Thrace the gaida (Thracian bagpipe) was used along with the lyra. The music was an
essential part of these fire-walking ceremonies, its intensity driving the participants to dance on the hot coals. The
ritual has been the subject of scientific study, as those who dance on the hot embers do not get their feet burned (though
there is a story about a tourist, who, doubtful if there were really hot coals under the dancers feet, jumped in, and had
his feet badly burned).
