Greek Name Days & Greek Holidays

According to Greek Orthodox tradition, every day of the year is dedicated to a Christian saint or martyr. January 7 for example, is the day of Saint John the Baptist and it is the name day for all greek people named Yannis (or Ioannis = John, male) or Yanna (or Ioanna, female). A person's name day is considered more important than the same person's birthday and it is always celebrated in Greece.

Here is a list of the most important Name Days in Greece:

January 1 - New Year's Day - Vasileios (Vasilis)
January 6 - Theofania (Epiphany) - Fotis, Fotoula
January 7 - Ioannis - Ioanna or Yannis - Yanna
January 10 - Grigorios
January 11 - Theodosios
January 17 - Antonios
January 18 - Athanasios& Kurillos
January 20 - Eythimios
January 26 - Xenofontas

 July 1 - Kosmas, Damianos
July 3 - Yakinthos (the Cretan Saint Valentine)
July 7 - Kuriaki
July 8 - Theofilos
July 11 - Olga
July 17 - Marina
July 20 - Elias (Ilias)
July 26 - Paraskevi
February 1 - Tryfonas
February 8 - Zaxarias
February 9 - Nikiforos
February 10 - Charalampos
February 17 - Theodoros		 August 15 - Assumption Day - Maria - Marios
August 24 - Kosmas
August 25 - Titos
August 30 - Alexandros
March 1 - Eudokia
March 16 - Xristodoulos
March 21 - Iakovos
March 25 - Evangelos - Evangelia or Vangelis - Vangelio (Eva)		 September 1 - Simeon
September 14 - Stavros - Stavroula
September 15 - Nikitas
September 29 - Kiriakos
April 23 - Georgios (Yorgos) - Georgia. If this name day is during the Easter Lent, then it is moved to the second day after Easter October 3 - Dionisios
October 6 - Thomas
October 26 - Dimitrios
May 4 - Pelagia
May 5 - Eirini
May 9 - Christoforou
May 10 - Simonos
May 21 - Kostas (Konstantinos), Eleni		 November 8 - Michalis, Angelos - Angela (Angeliki)
November 9 - Nektarios
November 11 - Minas
November 14 - Filippos
November 16 - Mathaios
November 25 - Aikaterini (Katerina)
November 26 - Stulianos
November 30 - Andreas
June 8 - Kalliopi
June 29 - Petros, Paulos		 December 4 - Varvara
December 5 - Savvas
December 6 - Nikolaos (Nikos)
December 9 - Anna
December 12 - Spiridon (Spiros)
December 15 - Eleutherios (Lefteris)
December 25 - Christmas Day, Manolis - Emmanouela
December 27 - Stefanos

Greek PublicHolidays
January 1: New Year's Day
January 6: Epiphany
March 25: Independence Day
May 1 Flower Festival & Labour Day
April 11 (Orthodox) Easter (2004) Check out our Easter Calculator for future years.
August 15: Assumption Day
October 28: Ochi Day
December 25: Christmas Day