Tinos, Girla, The Festival of the Monastery of Agia Triada

The Monastery of Agia Triada (Holy Trinity) of Girla is considered the most worthwhile destination on the island of Tinos after the Holy Church of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Cloister of Kechrovouni. The Monastery is just 2.5 km from Tinos’ capital and houses the Folklore Museum, a small but intriguing museum of folk art that showcases past aspects of daily life in Tinos. The route to the museum is beautiful. To the south, beyond the plains, spreads the sea while in the other direction rise mountain peaks stretching from Kechrovouni to Mount Tsiknias.

On the slopes beneath lay multi-colored stretches of land backed by stone walls that form stair-like sequences of plots. Between these unique landscapes are elegant country chapels, Cycladic dovecotes, cells, and stables. The landscape then changes, becoming greener because of a stream watering and supporting the vegetation. At a distance, the entrance of the Monastery appears.

A festival takes place on June 13th following a holy liturgy where everyone is invited to participate. On the island of Tinos, it is a tradition to whitewash inside and out every church whenever it celebrates the memory of the saint to whom it is dedicated, while women of the village clean up the area around the church, polish the candle-stands, and decorate the sanctuary with flowers. After Mass, treats are served in the courtyard. The festival sometimes culminates in the main square with balo and syrto dances to the sounds of musicians playing instruments based on the violin.

People celebrating their name day open their homes to the public, having decorated their tables with beautiful dinner sets and white tablecloths. A bounty of local dishes is served with abundant quantities of wine until late in the evening with offerings of psarakia, meringues, pasteli, and xerotigana along with homemade raki. Tinos traditional dishes are artichokes cooked in a variety of ways, sun-dried tomatoes with batter, froutalia, savore with molasses, fried fish with petimezi sauce, pork sausages, the saltsisi, and the louza of Tinos. Cheeses include the famed graviera and the kopanisti. As for sweets, famous are the amygdalota, xerotigana, karidota, pasteli, loukoumi, and various kinds of halva as well as the renowned thyme honey of Tinos.

Photo: tinostoday.gr religiousgreece.gr museumfinder.gr