In the chapel of Agios Georgios in Agios Georgios Messolonghi, the horse races in honor of Saint George.

According to tradition, the Horse Races seem to be an uninterrupted and continuous cultural-religious event that took place even in the years of Turkish rule.

As oral tradition testifies, the you go out of your way to get along well with the Greeksallowed them to hold their church services and their religious holidays.

This age-old custom the Turkish conquerors respected it and with the pretext that the games are not a religious celebration, but a common one, they also participated, with the result that in the horse races there are two groupss, one of the Christians and one of the Turks. Many times, however, the result was unpleasant for the Turks, because although they had Arab and well-fed horses, they lost to the petite and thin horses of the Greeks, who were suffering from their work in the fields.

Folk tradition held that this fact was a sign from Saint George, that the nation could throw off the Turkish yoke and claim its freedom. Symbolically for the people, Saint George was the protector of the enslaved Greeks but also “the chieftain-saint” of the revolutionary fighters. While the Dragon took the form of the Turkish conqueror.

In the years following Liberation, the custom began to revive again.

On the day of St. George, the residents from all over the surrounding area would gather, perform the Divine Liturgy and each family would bring their horse to be blessed by the priest so that it would be strong and able to cope with the heavy work in the field.

At the end of the Divine Liturgy, the pilgrims with the horses raced in front of the chapel. The winner’s prize for each category was not and is not money, but…to a wreath of flowers that has the blessing of Saint George and which Papas wears around the horse’s neck.