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Claiming to be the best music event in the Mediterranean, the festival hosts world music ensembles and folk musicians from all five continents.

Christ’s effigy, decorated with flowers, is carried solemnly through the streets at nightfall.

After the Carnival festivities, islanders feast on flatulence-inducing beans and pulses with the aim of purging the devil from their bodies.

Since 1977 Güzelyurt in Northern Cyprus’s citrus-growing region has been the venue for a festival that originally celebrated the orange harvest. It has now expanded to include concerts, competitions and art exhibitions.

The works of ancient playwrights such as Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes leap back to life in Pafos’s ancient odeon during this internationally renowned cultural event. It attracts performers and directors from Cyprus, Greece and further afield.

The cloisters of Bellapais Abbey come alive every year during this season of classical concerts, which attract musicians and music-lovers from all over the world.

Village costumes and traditional Turkish musical instruments are brought out to celebrate one of Northern Cyprus’s most venerable feasts.

Noah’s escape from the Flood is celebrated with processions and music.

Wine flows freely and there is dancing in the streets as the mountainous Kourris Valley’s vineyard villages – Alassa, Agios Georgios, Doros, Lania, Monagri and Silikou – celebrate the start of the grape harvest. Visitors are welcome to join in, eat, drink and be merry.

Costumed dancers, traditional musicians, and lots of eating and drinking help celebrate the olive harvest. Most events are held in and around the floodlit Kyrenia Castle (see Kyrenia Castle).