{"id":7202,"date":"2025-05-21T14:42:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T11:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meteorapyligeopark.gr\/events\/dance-of-the-elders\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T14:42:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T11:42:25","slug":"dance-of-the-elders","status":"publish","type":"mec-events","link":"https:\/\/www.meteorapyligeopark.gr\/en\/events\/dance-of-the-elders\/","title":{"rendered":"Dance of the Elders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The three-day festival of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary (15 August) in Gardiki concludes with the traditional &#8220;Dance of the Elders&#8221;\u2014a symbolic reenactment rooted in local legend. According to tradition, the village elders perform a ritual dance symbolizing the pursuit of an enemy, holding lit candles in their hands while singing folk songs unique to the region. They are then followed by the veterans of the most recent wars, who take the lead in a proud and spirited performance of the song \u201cThe Eagle\u2019s Son\u201d, dancing with shepherd\u2019s staffs (gklitses) held high, while mimicking a battle scene through their movements.<br \/>As a gesture of honor and gratitude, the elders are offered grilled meats, wine, and tsipouro, and the celebration continues with music and dancing\u2014often until sunrise.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The three-day festival of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary (15 August) in Gardiki concludes with the traditional &#8220;Dance of the Elders&#8221;\u2014a symbolic reenactment rooted in local legend. According to tradition, the village elders perform a ritual dance symbolizing the pursuit of an enemy, holding lit candles in their hands while singing folk songs unique [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"mec_category":[116],"class_list":["post-7202","mec-events","type-mec-events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","mec_category-faires"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dance of the Elders - Meteora - Pyli Geopark<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meteorapyligeopark.gr\/en\/events\/dance-of-the-elders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dance of the Elders - Meteora - Pyli Geopark\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The three-day festival of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary (15 August) in Gardiki concludes with the traditional &#8220;Dance of the Elders&#8221;\u2014a symbolic reenactment rooted in local legend. 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