An annual event to light what organizers bill as the “first Christmas Tree of the season” in Greece was again held on Thursday evening in the northern village of Taxiarchis.
A 13-meter fir tree decorated with some 20,000 lights and Christmas regalia was lit up in the village square, which is located in the Sithonia peninsula of verdant Halkidiki prefecture of northern Greece – the center of Greece’s Christmas tree cultivation and production.
The early, by Greek standards, lighting of the municipal Christmas Tree takes place on the eve of the Nov. 8 feast day of the Synaxis of the Archangels, a major religious commemoration of the Orthodox Church.
Taxiarchis in Greek, in fact, means “archangel”.
“We’re a small village, with about 500 to 600 permanent residents, many of whom are engaged in the production of fir trees. We see organized tour groups and dozens of visitors here for the tree lighting. It’s like another village is added,” according to Yannis Lelegiannis, the deputy mayor of the Polygyros municipality, which includes the specific village.
