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The tiny church of Agios (Saint) Charalambos in the village of Sfakia, Crete, holds its celebration in honour of the saint on the 10th of February every year. The church is protected by the cave into which it is built and looks out onto the Libyan Sea. In the past few years, a wall was built to protect it from the sheep who came here to bed down. Inside this church, there used to be nothing but an icon, with no altar, no iconostasis and no pulpit. It was pure simplicity. In 2017, however, a wall with an opening was built inside it to separate the altar from the public area. The icon is now mounted on this wall with a candelabra.
On the day of the festival, at the end of the liturgy, the priests give artos and the people sit down to eat. The tables fill up with meze, fried fish, anthotyro and finally the famous gamopilafo. The locals, dressed in their traditional black attire, eat with the faithful and perform a traditional improvisational type of poetry (the mandinada), dance traditional Cretan dances and celebrate.
Photo: Christopher Cheiladakis
