ASTORIA – The four-day ‘panegyri’ – festival – full of church services and family and faith-related events and festivities has commenced at the Sacred Patriarchal and Stavropegial Orthodox Monastery of St. Irene Chrysovalantou in Astoria, NY.
Opening on Thursday, July 24, the panegyri took place from 5-11 PM, welcoming parishioners, families, and friends in the community of Astoria to come together and celebrate the feast day St Irene Chrysovalantou.
The evening commenced with the Great Vespers service at St Irene Chrysovalantou church, at 36-07 23rd Avenue in Astoria, and following the service, the official blessing of the festival took place outside the church just after 8 PM.
The atmosphere of the festival was lively, and the aromas of freshly grilled souvlakia and kontosouvli flooded the space. Greek music and dancing commenced as the sun began to set.
Held since 1972, the Saint Irene Chrysovalantou panegyri has been a beloved festival known for its focus on faith and uniting community.
At the opening night of the panegyri, there were kid’s amusements and games, a religious store selling books and icons, a live singer presenting traditional Greek music, and a dance floor, where the dancers from the Greek American Folklore Society took to the stage at 9 PM. The dance group is also expected to perform each night of the festival, at 9 PM, and the Loupakis School will be doing an acrobatics performance at 7 PM on Saturday evening.
There were also food stands selling traditional Greek souvlakia, kontosouvli, moussakas, pastitsio and gemista, as well as Greek sweets such as galaktoboureko, portokalopita and the panegyri’s famous honey-drenched loukoumades.
Nikitas Theologitis, the Vice President of the Amorgos Foundation, spoke with The National Herald, about the significance of the feast day.
“It is very important as it is our only chance to raise money to maintain our buildings, to maintain our church,” Theologitis told TNH.
“It’s not just what you see here – we have our monastery, we have two dependency churches in Brooklyn, one in Greenport, one in Chicago, and one in Florida, and we’re trying to do what we can to collect funds to preserve, support, and maintain them all, especially here for our church and monastery in Astoria.”
Theologitis said it made him happy to see more than 1,000 people attend the festival every year. He further mentioned some of his favorite things about celebrating the annual feast day.
“Besides the delicious Greek food, and the amazing Greek dancing performances, I love that our beloved St Irene Chrysovalantou church and monastery is celebrated,” he said.
“Every day this weekend there’s church liturgies, every morning there’s liturgies, and it’s really beautiful to see the procession of the icon of St. Irene Chrysovalantou come out too.”
He added how he felt to see the young people attending the panegyri and supporting the church.
“It makes me feel very proud because it means someone is continuing our traditions and keeping our faith and culture alive, as we are right now,” Theologitis said.
“We have many people volunteering too which is great to see.”
The Administrator of the Sacred Patriarchal and Stavropegial Orthodox Monastery of St. Irene Chrysovalantou in Astoria, Yiannis Kotsaridis, said his favorite part of the festival is honoring the protection of Saint Irene.
“Our feast day celebrations are truly like a Greek-style panegyri in Greece – it’s traditional, we have traditional Greek music and dancing, and it’s something that ties us to our homeland, Greece,” Kotsalidis said.
He said he looks forward to seeing more people attend over the next few days of the festival. The remainder of the festival’s program can be found at www.styrene.org.
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