The Greek calendar is filled with religious celebrations, cultural festivals, and civic occasions. Those events with roots in Byzantine Greece combine religious belief and national pride in a way unfamiliar to most Americans. Shops may close early for local or national celebrations, and hotels may be booked during major events. Verify the dates of events with the Greek National Tourist Organization GNTO or EOT; Festivals Box Office, 4 Stadiou St., Athens; 01/322-1459 or 01/322-3111 ext. 240.

Dec. 31: New Year's Eve is the occasion for carol singing by children and the exchange of gifts.

Jan. 1: The Feast of Saint Basil marks the beginning of the New Year. A special cake, the Vassilopita, is baked with a coin in it, which brings good luck to the finder.

Jan. 6: Epiphany, the day for blessing the waters, is the occasion for an official ceremony at Athens's harbor, Piraeus.

February 2: Candlemas An Orthodox feast all over Greece. A quiet time before Lent.

Carnival Sunday: (first Sunday before Lent) Carnivals take place for 3 weeks leading up to this climax of pre-Lenten activities. There are parades and costume balls in many large cities.

Cxlean Monday: (immediately after "Cheese Sunday", 7 Sundays before Easter) Kites are flown in the countryside.

Mar. 25: Independence Day commemorates the call for independence in 1821 by Germanos, the Metropolitan of Patras, which began the uprising in the Peloponnese that eventually freed Greece from Ottoman rule. Today it is marked by parades of the armed forces in Athens.

Holy Week: March/April (varies) Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday are the most sacred days on the Orthodox calendar. The traditional candlelight funeral processions staged throughout the country on Good Friday are very powerful to watch. Not only do they attest to the strength of the participants' faith, but they link modern Greece with its Byzantine roots, and the soldiers carrying the coffins illustrate the ties between church and government. Processions to churches on the night of Holy Saturday are a memorable sight. Following the midnight ceremony of the Resurrection, the congregations head homeward to feast, with the traditional red-dyed eggs and mayiritsa soup. More red-dyed eggs and roast lamb highlight the feasting on Easter Sunday. Seeing the rituals of Holy Week makes you understand the depth of meaning that the Easter greeting Christos aneste, "Christ is risen," and its response Alithos aneste, "He has indeed risen," has for most Greeks.

April 23: St. George Day. One of the most important feast days in the Orthodox calendar, commemorating the patron saint of shepherds and marking the start of the grazing season.

May 1: May Day, also known as Labor Day is a national holiday. Families pick wildflowers in the countryside and make them into garlands with garlic. These are hung on doors, balconies, fishing boats, and hoods of cars to ward off evil. There are parades also and rallies.

May - Sept: Folk dancing is performed at the amphitheater on Filopappou Hill in Athens.

May 21: A celebration throughout Greece for Constantine and his mother, Helen, the first Orthodox Byzantine rulers.

Feast of the Ascension: (40 days after Easter) An important religious feast day.

Whitsunday or Pentecost: (seven weeks after Orthodox Easter) A feast day celebrated throughout Greece.

June-Sept: The Athens Festival presents ancient dramas, operas, music, and ballet performed by nationally and internationally famous artists, in the 2nd-century Odeon of Herodes Atticus on the south slope of the Acropolis.

Mid-June-late Aug: Lycabettus Theater presents a variety of performances in the amphitheater on Lycabettus Hill overlooking Athens.

July 17: Agía Marína Feast to honor the saint, an important protector of crops.

July 18-20 Profitis Ilias: The Feast Honoring the Prophet Elijah

August 6: Feast of the Transfiguration

August 15: Assumption of the Virgin Mary. A national holiday, and one on which Greeks traditionally return to their home villages for celebrations.

Aug - Sept: At the Aeschilia festival, ancient dramas are staged at the archaeological site of Eleusis near Athens.

September 8: Feast of the birth of the Virgin Mary

September 14: Exaltation of the True Cross

October 26: Agios Dimítrios: The end of the grazing season when sheep are brought down from the hills.

October 28: Ochi Day: A national holiday with patriotic parades and much dancing. The day commemorates the reply in 1940 to Mussolini's ultimatum calling for Greek surrender. the answer was a firm: óchi NO!

November 21: Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple.