The upscale Municipality of Kifissia, in the leafy north of the greater Athens agglomeration, has officially established a new local public holiday, ending a 77-year-old tradition and resolving a long-standing institutional issue over the district’s patron saint commemoration.
A decision published on July 14 in the Government Gazette (Official Gazette A΄ 111/2026), titled “Establishment of October 26 as a holiday for the Municipality of Kifissia, Attica,” formally recognizes October 26 as a local holiday for the municipality.
The date corresponds to the feast day of Saint Demetrius (Demetrios) the Myrrh-streamer, as celebrated on Orthodox ecclesiastical calender, the official patron saint of Kifissia.
The new holiday replaces August 6, the day of the Transfiguration of the Savior, which had been established as a local holiday by royal decree on February 28, 1949.
The change officially completes the process of aligning the municipality’s administrative and civic holiday calendar with the municipality’s patron saint, after decades of confusion affecting religious, administrative and commercial activities in the district.
The presidential decree, No. 42, was signed by Greek President Konstantinos Tasoulas, Interior Minister Theodoros Livanios and Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance Athanasios Petralias.
The effort to establish October 26 as Kifissia’s official holiday began in 2012 and was reaffirmed through a series of municipal council decisions. The most recent was unanimous Decision No. 229/2024, which renewed the municipality’s commitment to restarting the required administrative procedures.
