23 April / Aghios Yeorghios (St. George's Day)

This important feast day will be postponed till the Monday after Pascha (Easter) if it falls during Sarakosti (Lent). St. George is the patron of shepherds, and hence his day calls for big celebrations in rural places, with much feasting, drinking and dancing, as well as at the many churches and monasteries named for him. All males named Georgios (Yeorghis in Crete) and females named Yeorgheea (Georgia in English) have their name day on this day. The name literally means 'ploughing of the earth', with yeorghia' the ancinet Greek word for farming, the 'gee-orgon', a farmer.