Across Greece, August 15 brings towns and villages to life with celebrations honoring the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. In the village of Oxylithos on the island of Evia, preparations begin long before the bells ring for one of the community’s most important annual traditions.
The celebration centers on the small Byzantine church of the Dormition of the Theotokos, known as Panagia Petriotissa (or Panagia Chatiriannisa). The feast is also famous for what unfolds around the church, including the preparation and communal serving of the traditional “Stifado of the Virgin Mary” in dozens of large cauldrons.
Officially recorded as “The August 15 Feast in Oxylithos,” the tradition brings together more than three thousand people and involves more than three hundred members of the local community in its organization and preparation. In 2026, the custom moved to the next stage in the process of being included in Greece’s National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
A feast centered on Panagia Petriotissa in Oxylithos, Evia
At the heart of the celebration is the Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos, known as Panagia Petriotissa. The church stands in the Chatiriani neighborhood of Oxylithos and is considered an important example of Byzantine architecture on Evia. Dating to the late 13th or early 14th century, it preserves significant wall paintings and celebrates its feast day on August 15.
The name Panagia Petriotissa is connected to the icon of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, which, according to local oral tradition, came from the nearby village of Petries. The official cultural heritage record preserves this account as an oral tradition rather than presenting it as a documented historical event.
The feast itself is a custom that, in the words of the official cultural heritage record, “is lost in the passage of the centuries.” The wording is useful because it conveys the tradition’s longevity without assigning it an unsupported specific date of origin.
Preparations for the feast of the Virgin Mary in Oxylithos, Evia begin days before August 15
The celebration does not begin on the morning of the feast. Days beforehand, residents begin organizing the large cooking area and gathering the equipment needed for the communal meal.
The cauldrons used for the feast are gathered and prepared, while volunteers work together to ready the cooking area. A recent local account describes the preparations getting underway several days before the celebration, with the onions and other ingredients prepared on the eve of the feast.
The fires are prepared so the large cauldrons can be placed over the wood flames. By the eve of the feast, the area around the church has been transformed into a communal kitchen. Then comes one of the most distinctive parts of the preparation: the onions.
On the eve of August 15, residents gather to clean the large quantities of onions that will go into the stifado. Published accounts of the tradition describe the onion preparation beginning that morning, followed later by the preparation of the tomatoes and meat. For the people of Oxylithos, this work is as much a part of the tradition as the feast itself. The preparations bring generations together, with younger and older residents working side by side.
The official cultural heritage record notes that people of various ages take part in preparing the food and emphasizes the importance of volunteer work to the community. It describes a cooking area equipped with 150 cauldrons and with more than three hundred people involved in organizing the celebration. More than three thousand people attend the feast.
A 2024 local report offers a glimpse of the quantities involved, citing approximately three tons of beef, 2.3 tons of onions, and 2.5 tons of tomatoes used for the feast, along with olive oil and other ingredients.
The food is cooked over wood fires in large cauldrons, turning the area around the church into a scene of constant activity. The tradition is about more than feeding a large crowd, with food offered as part of the religious celebration. The work involved in preparing it has itself become an important form of communal participation, and volunteering is connected to a personal vow to the Virgin Mary. For others, it represents a sense of obligation to the community.
A tradition that survived the Occupation in Oxylithos
One of the most striking chapters in the history of the Oxylithos feast dates to the years of the German-Italian occupation of Greece during World War II. According to the official cultural heritage record, the custom continued throughout the occupation despite severe shortages of meat. Rather than abandon the tradition, the community adapted the dish by preparing it with eggplants.
The story is significant not because it gives the feast an artificially ancient origin but because it illustrates how the community adapted the tradition to extraordinary circumstances and kept it alive. The custom was formally documented in 2017 by Giannis Karachristos, a research director at the Academy of Athens’ Center for Greek Folklore, at the request of the Association of Oxylithians Everywhere.
On August 15, the religious celebration begins with the Divine Liturgy at Panagia Petriotissa. As the service takes place, the food continues to cook in the great cauldrons nearby. According to local reporting, Metropolitan Seraphim of Karystia and Skyros blesses the stifado before it is distributed to pilgrims and visitors around noon, as reported in a 2024 account.
Once the food is ready, the religious observance gives way to the communal feast. The stifado is served to those gathered at the church, continuing a tradition in which the dish is prepared not for a select group but for the community as a whole. Afterward, the atmosphere shifts again as music, dancing, and celebration take over.
For visitors, the enormous cauldrons may be the most striking image of the Oxylithos tradition. For the people of the village, however, its meaning lies just as much in everything that comes before them, from gathering and preparing the ingredients to cooking and serving the food together.
A living tradition dedicated to the Virgin Mary in Oxylithos, Greece
The Oxylithos feast has attracted official attention as an example of Greece’s living intangible cultural heritage. In 2026, “The August 15 Feast in Oxylithos,” also known as “The Stifado of the Virgin Mary,” was listed as a qualified submission for the next stage of the process concerning Greece’s National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It has not yet been presented as a completed final inscription.
The official submission describes the feast as a religious, social, and ritual practice and emphasizes its role in the cultural identity of the people of Oxylithos. That identity is evident long before the first plate of stifado is served. It can be seen in the people preparing the fires, cleaning the onions, tending the cauldrons, and working through the night. It comes together at the church where the August 15 celebration begins and around the tables where families and visitors eventually gather.
Most of all, it lives on in a tradition that has adapted to difficult times without disappearing.
For one day each August, Oxylithos on Greece’s island of Evia turns a religious feast into a communal expression of memory, work, and hospitality. The “Stifado of the Virgin Mary” is not simply a dish prepared in large quantities. It is at the heart of a tradition through which the people of the village continue to come together.
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