Cyprus Public Holidays
Tourists who are planning a trip to Cyprus will be worth considering the dates of the Greek Cypriot public holidays or bank holidays.
Cyprus has a mixture of religious & traditional national holidays which are celebrated across the Greek half of the island. Below are listed Public Holidays for the January 2010 to December 2011 period.
Public Holidays for 2011
Saturday January 1 – New Year’s Day – Protochronia
Thursday January 6 – Epiphany or 12th Night – Theofania
(Baptism day of Jesus Christ)
Monday March 7 – Green Monday
(Green Monday is the first day of the Greek Orthodox Great Lent and is also known as Clean Monday, Pure Monday and Ash Monday. It occurs in the beginning of the 7th week before Easter Sunday. The day is celebrated in Greece and Cyprus by outdoor excursions, consumption of seafood and other non-meat product. Typically occurring at the start of spring in early March, Green Monday is a festival where flying a kite is the main past time. Families and groups of friends descend onto the beaches. Laden with picnics and, of course, their best kites ready to take part in the local kite festival.)
Friday March 25 – Greek Independence Day
(Greek Independence day – also know as Greek Revolution day was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1830, with later assistance from several European powers. This day marks the beginning of the Greek war of independence from the Ottoman Empire (1821 – 1831))
Friday April 1 – Greek Cypriot National Day
(Greek Cypriots are the ethnic Greek population of Cyprus and the island’s largest ethnic community comprising nearly 80 percent of the population. The Greek Cypriot National Day is celebrated on April 1st of every year. It is a public holiday of Cyprus. It symbolizes the anniversary of the freedom struggle of the Greek Cypriots against British rule in 1955. On this day secondary school pupils and students of higher education institutes attend church services.)
Friday April 22 – Orthodox Good Friday
Monday April 25 – Orthodox Easter Monday
Sunday May 1 – Labour Day – Ergatiki Protomagia
Sunday Jun 12 – Pentecost – Kataklysmos
(Larnaca organizes the biggest Festival of Flood in Cyprus and celebrates Kataklysmos for several days. Kataklysmos, or the Flood Festival, takes place every year in June, 50 days after Orthodox Easter. The event takes place on the day that is known also as the day of the Holy Spirit, because it commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles. In Cyprus, however, the celebrations are connected also to the ancient ceremonies organized in honor of Aphrodite and Adonis. Water is the main focus of the festival. People go to pay homage to the “holy water fronts”, where water sports are held and people go around in boats and even splash each other just for the fun of it. The Cyprus coastline will be transformed into a hive of activity as Cyprus celebrates the festival as all coastal cities organize concerts, games and other events near the waterfront.
On the sea front esplanade, tourists will find open-air fair with plenty of stalls selling toys and traditional food. Popular Greek and Cypriot singers and dance troupes perform in Larnaca. There are competitions in the water as well as a contest for chatista, or rhyming songs in the Cypriot dialect. Protaras and Ayia Napa will stage concerts and games near the waterfront close to the golden beach of Fig Tree Bay, over a three-day period. The celebrations include live concerts, traditional dances, water sports displays and competitions as well as fireworks.)
Monday August 15 – Dormition of the Virgin Mary (Assumption Day)
(This is the second most important religious holiday in the Greek Orthodox calendar. This is the day of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Mother of Jesus. According to Greek Orthodoxy, theAssumption Day celebrates the day the Virgin Mary ascended into Heaven following her death. Colorful processions through the streets and firework displays mark the celebration of the Feast of the Assumption)
Saturday October 1 – Cyprus Independence Day
(Cyprus was a colony of the British Empire from 1878 until 1960 and became an independence country after a four year guerrilla war (1955-1959) against the British. The island actually gained its Independence on August 16th, 1960 although it is celebrated on the 1st October. Independence Day is celebrated with festivals taking place at schools and within local communities. In Nicosia, The largest celebration of this day is held with a military parade. It is also one of the bank holidays).
Friday October 28 – Greek National Day – Ochi Day
(On October 28, Greek National Day, popularly know as “Ochi Day”, is celebrated as a National Holiday in Cyprus and mostly remembered for general Ioannis Metaxas’ strong reply of ‘oxi’ (no) to Mussolini’s request to allow Italian troops to come into Greece at the beginning of WW II.. It was a “No!” that dragged Greece into the war on the Allied side and helped to maintain Greece’s course of neutrality for generations to come.
Greece was incidentally Britain’s only ally against Hitler. Not only did Greece refuse to give Mussolini’s forces free passage, they seized the offensive and drove them back through most of Albania).
Sunday December 25 – Christmas Day – Christougenna
Monday December 26 – Boxing Day – Synaxis Theotokou
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