Kind Of Blue

Kind Of Blue

Music and Dancing in Vitsa, Epirus, Greece.
Andrea Frazzetta for The New York Times Magazine. August 2014.

“So long as we still reflect each other — even deformed — as through silver spoons,
wine glasses, and exultant bottles
on the table of a dinner party about to begin,
things can’t be that bad.”
Luljeta Lleshanaku, Albanian poet.

Every year the people of Epirus hold “Panegyria”, multiday, music-intensive events in which they mourn their losses and celebrate what remains. Panegyria are religious festivals, in that they are tied to the patron saint of a village church and are held on a day dedicated to honoring the life of that saint, as determined by the Greek Orthodox calendar.
There is speculation that the Panegyria have pagan roots, that the priests simply assimilated them. Regardless, Panegyria have always aimed to treat “xenitia” with a hefty dose of “parea”, a company of friends. Panegyria are a way for the village to pay homage not just to its saints but also to its missing (those who left home to work, those who are otherwise exiled) and then to exult in the remaining togetherness, however fleeting it might be.

Vitsa is a midsize village high in the Pindos Mountains. Vitsa’s Panegyri, which is held annually on Aug. 14, 15 and 16, is the region’s most elaborate.
Vitsa is uncommonly idyllic. Its low hillside buildings are constructed almost entirely of local white limestone and feature very few concessions to modernity. In 1812, Byron, in “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” wrote fondly of the surrounding area, calling one nearby village a “small but favour’d spot of holy ground,” citing its “rainbow tints” and “magic charms.” Little has changed since.