REGIONAL UNIT OF PELLA: TRADITION AND CONTEMPORARY CULTURE
Cultural events
Nature and culture coexist harmoniously in Edessa, the capital of Pella. Hikes, runs and bicycle races are organised in the spring among the blossoming cherry trees. The Spring Music Festival and the annual Flower Show are held at the same time of year. The Philharmonic Orchestra of the Municipality of Edessa is at the forefront of these events, with concerts in the Little Waterfalls Park and elsewhere.
In the summer, concerts, plays, dance performances and thematic tributes are held in the open-air Gavaliotissa Theatre in the pine forest of the same name. Films are screened by the Alexander the Great Cultural Association of Edessa at the municipal open-air Katarraktes Cinema, in the Myloi (Mills) area of the Edessa Open Air Water Museum.
A modern institution of the Municipality of Edessa, established in 2004, is the Edessa Carnival. The events last for seven days, culminating in the grand parade of floats and carnival performers along the main pedestrian street of the city.
In Giannitsa, the second-largest city of the Regional Unit of Pella, two important institutions lie at the heart of social life: the August cultural events held in the Open Theatre, and the Giannitsa Trade Fair, the great popular fair in September. Musical and theatrical events are held in the city’s indoor theatre throughout the year.
Folk performances and festivals
On 23 December, in Edessa and other towns and villages of Pella, the Kolida Babo is celebrated, with dancing and singing around huge bonfires. The Christmas season in the Regional Unit of Pella, as elsewhere, features performances in costume. Although in modern societies these have lost their original magical character, intended to appease natural and supernatural forces, they are still associated with the wishing of a happy new year.
. In Giannitsa, the Momogeroi (“mummers” – like the English word, the term is probably derived from Momus, the god of laughter and satire), men in disguise wearing helmets and fustanelles (men’s traditional pleated skirts), together with the brides, the old man, the old woman, the devil, the bear, the doctor, the gendarme and other characters, present improvised comic performances with music and dancing. The performance, recorded in more than fifty variations, has its roots in Pontus on the southern coast of the Black Sea. In Pella, the Kamila and Divitzis (Camel and Camel-driver) is a strongly theatrical event. The camel with its clanging bells and the divitzis (camel-driver) striking his topouzi (phallus-shaped club) on the ground attempt to “awaken” nature to be fruitful. In many villages of Pella, the Rousalies, groups of men in fustanelles brandishing swords, go round on Epiphany, dancing to the zournas (shawm) and daouli drum, in order to raise money for charity.
Two summer festivals with dance displays and local brass bands celebrate the cherry harvest: the Cherry Festival in Agra and the Kerassiotika in the mountain village of Kerassies (“Cherry Trees”). In October, viticulture is celebrated in Mesimeri with the Tsipouro Festival.
Modern sporting institutions with deep roots
The International Alexander the Great Marathon, a sporting event of Northern Greece of great cultural and historical significance, follows the route from Pella to Thessaloniki.
The celebration of the Eleutheria Festival of Edessa (18 October) includes the Water Night Route among the waterfalls and rivers of the city, held since 2014 and attended by runners from all over Greece.
