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The month of august in Kefalonia welcomes you to the unique Snake festival held at the Church of the Virgin in the village of Markopoulo. Dont miss out on this opportunity to witness this one of a kind festival as your flight to Kefalonia lands. The festival is held on 14th and 15th of August, so you can plan your trip around this time.

The Church of Virgin at Markopoulo is widely known for the Snake Festival. Snakes are deliberately brought to the church in jars and bags, accumulated in the church close to the silver portrait of Panagia Fidoussa Virgin of the Snakes. You can plan to reach the village as early as possible as these roads are often blocked by the police during the days of the festival. Thats because snakes are often seen appearing 2 to 3 days prior to the festival. In such situations, travelers are advised to take the uphill road leading to Markopoulo from Kateleios. The celebrations have been commercialized to a large extent especially in the past few years. It provides a fun filled atmosphere just like any of the festivals celebrated here.

You will experience an incredibly enjoyable environment because of the banquet, traditional music and dances performed by people around. Small harmless snakes actually start nearing the church from all the directions starting from 6th August through the subsequent days till August 15th when the festivities are over.

These snakes often have 4 dots, resembling a cross, over their heads. Since the snakes are small as well as harmless you can touch them without a fear in mind. The snakes surprisingly vanish after they have entered the church once on the day of the festival and done their round of climbing over the icons in the church. It is believed that the snakes were actually nuns and they were converted into snakes so that they could escape a pirate attack. This is supposed to have happened a long time ago. Kefalonia can be reached from several locations of the world as there are many flights to Kefalonia especially during the festive season.

The arrival of snakes at the church is considered to be a sign of good fortune and that the residents will all be protected from any anticipated bad luck in form of a natural calamity such as an earthquake. It is also believed that in 1953 the snakes had not appeared and the place was hit by an earthquake. The festival is celebrated with this belief in mind and thats why people celebrate the festival with a lot of sincerity.