Today marks the Feast of the Holy Spirit in predominately Orthodox Christian Greece, a moveable religious holiday that annually falls exactly 50 days after Easter on the Orthodox ecclesiastical calendar and marks the traditional beginning of the summer season in the east Mediterranean nation.
The commemoration follows the previous day’s Feast of Pentecost (Trinity Sunday) and celebrates the ongoing presence and activity of the Holy Spirit within the Church, considered in the Eastern Orthodox faith as the third person of the Holy Trinity.
The day is a semi-holiday in the nation of roughly 11 million, as the retail sector usually operates as normal, along with a portion of businesses. Conversely, public services, schools and many professional castes enjoy a three-day weekend.
Authorities in Greece’s two major urban areas, the Athens-Piraeus agglomeration and greater Thessaloniki, reported massive exodus of urban-dwellers over the weekend, with trafficking back up for kilometers on highways heading away from the cities. Specifically, nearly 100,000 vehicles exited the greater Athens area from Friday morning until Sunday morning.
In terms of marine transport, more than 31,000 passengers departed for island destinations from the port of Piraeus on Friday alone. Another 14,000 passengers were set to sail for Cyclades destinations on Sunday, along with more than 7,600 passengers for the closer Saronic Gulf Island destinations. More than 10,000 passengers departed from Rafina, the second busiest port in the wider Athens area.
In northern Greece, droves of three-day weekend holiday makers were headed for the beaches of Halkidiki and Pieria prefectures, joined by thousands of travelers from Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Serbia, which are also predominately Orthodox nations.
Border traffic was heavy, as expected, but without delays.
