Kefalonia Events - 2027
The 2027 calendar runs month by month: 29 dated events on Kefalonia, from the fixed feast days and panigiria to litanies, parades and one ultramarathon. Only one of the 29 is a date an organiser has announced; the rest are fixed feasts or worked out from the Orthodox calendar. Four months have pages of their own, and for the other eight this page carries every date in full — the date, the place and one line on what the day is.
Each winter's closure is published as a dated notice rather than a fixed calendar: the 2026–27 one reads "The caves are closed. (15/11/2026 – 31/03/2027)" and runs to 31 March. After that nothing seasonal replaces it — hours are set by dated notice rather than by a timetable, and our opening hours page carries the one in force.
If you want to know what these festivals are like rather than when they fall — the kantades, the litanies, the Easter arithmetic behind the movable dates — see what Kefalonia's festivals are like.
January 2027
New Year's Day — the cologne walk on the Lithostroto
📅 Friday 1 January 2027 — the walk itself is the night before, Thursday 31 December 2026
The custom belongs to the night before, not to the day: the town walks the Lithostroto and sprays friends with cologne, so plan for the evening of the 31st rather than for the holiday itself.
📍 Location: Argostoli, along the Lithostroto pedestrian street
Epiphany — the Great Blessing of the Waters at the Sissiotissa
📅 Wednesday 6 January 2027
The Metropolitan of Kefalonia blesses the waters at the Sissiotissa in person, and this is one of the two days a year the Sissiotissa takes the island's attention — the other is its own feast in November.
📍 Location: Panagia Sissiotissa, Argostoli — 30 km, about 40 minutes, from the cave
No 2027 carnival programme is published yet.
February 2027
Ypapanti at Zola (Thinia)
📅 Tuesday 2 February 2027 — vespers on the eve, Monday 1 February, at 18:30, as last published
Zola fills in the dead of winter for the feast of its own church, with the Metropolitan presiding at the liturgy on the 2nd — the most famous of Thinia's panigiria.
📍 Location: Zola, the mountain village in Thinia
St Charalambos — Lixouri's patronal feast
📅 Wednesday 10 February 2027 — Orthros and hierarchical liturgy from 08:00, the litany of the icon and relic straight after, Paraklesis at 17:30, as last published
Lixouri's patronal day is a morning: the litany follows the 08:00 liturgy, and by evening the town is at the Paraklesis rather than in the street.
📍 Location: Lixouri
Carnival month on paper, but no 2027 carnival programme is published.
March 2027
Tsiknopempti
📅 Thursday 4 March 2027
The last Thursday before Lent is the island's grill night, the one evening of Apokries when the tavernas are full and nobody is pretending to fast yet.
📍 Location: island-wide — no Kefalonia-specific 2027 programme is published
Clean Monday (Kathara Deftera)
📅 Monday 15 March 2027
Lent opens with kites, lagana and shellfish, and Clean Monday is the day Apokries formally ends — an afternoon in the fields or on a beach rather than at a venue.
📍 Location: island-wide
No further March 2027 dates are published yet.
April 2027
Good Friday — the Epitaphios in Sami
📅 Friday 30 April 2027
The Epitaphios moves through Sami after dark by candlelight with the town following it — the Holy Week night that happens 2 km from the cave rather than in Argostoli.
📍 Location: Sami — 2 km from the cave entrance
Kefalonia Backyard Ultra
📅 Saturday 10 April 2027, start 09:00
A 6.706 km loop out of Argostoli, run every hour on the hour until one runner is left standing — the only date on this calendar that was announced rather than derived.
📍 Location: Argostoli — 30 km, about 40 minutes, from the cave
No further April 2027 dates are published yet.
May 2027
May 2027 puts three feast days into its first four days: Agrilia on the 1st runs into Orthodox Easter on the 2nd and the Themata feast on the 4th, with the union commemorations on the 21st closing the month.
June 2027
St John Lampadaris — Fokata
📅 Thursday 24 June 2027 — the vespers and the panigyri are on the eve, Wednesday 23 June
A village feast kept for its local custom rather than for size, and the date is the only way to find it — nothing is announced, the 23rd is simply the night.
📍 Location: Fokata, a mountain village
Agioi Fanentes — Sami
📅 Sunday 27 June 2027 — All Saints, the Sunday after Pentecost, which falls on 20 June 2027
The three saints Fanentes are Kefalonia's own, and their feast fills the churchyard above Sami with food, wine and dancing — a day that belongs to the island rather than to a village.
📍 Location: Agioi Fanentes, Sami
No further June 2027 dates are published yet.
July 2027
July 2027 has three fixed dates, all in the cave's part of the island: Agia Efimia on the 11th, the Prophet Elias table on the 19th and Poulata on the 27th.
August 2027
August 2027 has the Dormition at Agrilia on the 15th, St Gerasimos on the 16th, and St John at Karavomylos — the cave's own village — on the 28th.
September 2027
Makriotika
📅 Wednesday 8 September 2027, 21:00, as last published
Music and dancing from 21:00 in the village — the last of Pylaros's summer feasts, on a Wednesday in September once the island has quietened.
📍 Location: Makriotika, Pylaros
Theotokos Drepaniotissa
📅 Friday 24 September 2027
After vespers and the liturgy the icon leaves Drepano, crosses the bridge and goes on to St Spyridon — a village church's procession that ends up in the middle of town.
📍 Location: from the church at Drepano, over the bridge and on to St Spyridon
No further September 2027 dates are published yet.
October 2027
October 2027 puts three different sorts of day into the month's last ten: a monastery feast at Omala on the 20th, a saint's day in Lixouri on the 26th and a national holiday with parades on the 28th.
November 2027
Archangels (Taxiarches) — Valsamata
📅 Sunday 7 and Monday 8 November 2027 — vespers on the 7th, the feast on the 8th
A two-day village feast on the eve and the day, kept by Valsamata for its own church rather than laid on for visitors.
📍 Location: the church of the Archangels, Valsamata
The Sissiotissa — the Presentation of the Virgin
📅 Sunday 21 November 2027
The church's own feast, kept in grand style with the Metropolitan presiding — the Sissiotissa does this twice a year, and Epiphany in January is the other one.
📍 Location: Panagia Sissiotissa, Argostoli
No further November 2027 dates are published yet.
December 2027
Christmas Eve — Kefalonian carols
📅 Friday 24 December 2027
Kefalonia's carols are not the rest of Greece's: older choirs sing them in the streets with guitars and mandolins — the ones the guidebooks call "Rimnes" — and in Argostoli they walk the Lithostroto.
📍 Location: Argostoli and the island's villages; in Argostoli the singing moves along the Lithostroto
New Year's Eve on the Lithostroto
📅 Friday 31 December 2027
Argostoli ends the year in the street rather than at a table: the walk along the Lithostroto with cologne, an early-20th-century custom that has been revived rather than an ancient one.
📍 Location: the Lithostroto, Argostoli
No further December 2027 dates are published yet.