Litochoro in January has a particular kind of clarity — cold air that sharpens edges, a mountain that keeps its own counsel,
and a town that knows how to turn faith into movement.
On Epiphany — Fota, Theophany — a tradition rises again:
the Sichna, also known as Sichnoforia.

This is not a staged “folklore moment.” It is an ethno-religious celebration with roots that reach back to
Byzantine times, continuing through the years of Ottoman rule and into the present day.
And it has now been formally recognized: the custom was inscribed in Greece’s National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2022.

What are the Sichna?

The word Sichna refers to tall masts (poles) crowned with a cross — most commonly
silver, and in some cases gold.
From each mast flows a colorful banner, a bright signal against winter’s restrained palette.

Each Sichno is more than an object. It is a representative: it may stand for a local chapel (an exokklisi),
or it may be an offering tied to guilds and to families of sailors whose lives were shaped by sea,
absence, return — and promises kept.

Older descriptions of the custom speak of richer ornamentation — details that glittered and rang in the wind.
Today, what dominates the eye is the vertical certainty of the mast and the cross at the top:
silver in most cases, and sometimes gold.
The beauty is still there — but it’s a beauty that has learned to travel light through time.

Two days, one ritual spine

The Sichnoforia unfolds on two consecutive days:
Epiphany (Theophany) and the following day, the feast of Saint John the Forerunner
(Ioannis o Prodromos).
It is a carefully structured participation in the blessing of the waters — a rite that speaks to the Orthodox calendar,
but also to something older and more elemental: winter, water, and renewal.

On Epiphany, the town gathers, the ritual order is observed, and the Sichna take their place in the procession with the kind of seriousness
you only see when people are not “performing tradition,” but inhabiting it.
The next day continues the cycle — not as an afterthought, but as the second beat of the same heart.

Why the 2022 inscription matters

“Intangible cultural heritage” can sound like a museum phrase — dry, administrative, distant.
But in practice, it’s the opposite: it’s the recognition of something that survives only if people keep choosing it.
The inscription of the Sichna in 2022 is a public acknowledgement that this isn’t simply a local curiosity.
It is a living cultural form — with memory, ritual, and community as its materials.

You can read the official entry here:

ayla.culture.gr — “Τα Σίχνα στο Λιτόχωρο Πιερίας (2022)”

How to experience Sichnoforia respectfully

• Arrive early and observe the flow before you film it. Ritual has tempo; don’t interrupt its rhythm.
• Keep space around the procession. The Sichna are carried with purpose, not for obstacle courses.
• Dress for winter. Litochoro in January can be damp and sharp — Olympus doesn’t do “light jacket weather” as a favor.
• Listen more than you narrate. Some traditions reveal themselves only to quiet attention.

Under Olympus, the town remembers in motion

Litochoro lives in the shadow of a mountain that has been myth, refuge, boundary, and compass.
The Sichna feel like an extension of that geography: vertical lines against the sky, crosses catching pale light,
banners insisting on color in the middle of winter.

And that’s the real miracle of Sichnoforia: not that it survives in the calendar,
but that it survives in people — in the willingness to carry something meaningful together,
year after year, through cold air and changing times.

Giorgos Gizelis

Travel Writer & Founder of

Experience Pieria

Exploring Pieria & Greece one story at a time — sharing authentic places, people and tastes.

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