​The Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports organizes its twenty second annual August Full Moon events program, coordinated by the General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage, offering free admission to selected archaeological and historical sites, monuments, and museums, on the night of the full moon, Friday August 12th, according to the published schedule.

This year, on the hundredth anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the event will be dedicated to the Exodus of Hellenism from Asia Minor and the imprint that this disaster left on the collective memory.

As the theme of this year's poster, we have chosen a photograph by Boissonnas entitled "Acheiropoietos, as a camp for Greek refugees from Thrace and Asia Minor". The immortalized children of the photograph taken in 1919, were displaced in the camp as a consequence of other disasters brought by the First World War. However, this photograph serves as a timeless record of uprooting and unexpected loss, flight and wonderment in the face of an imposed fate.

On Friday, August 12th, 2022, 105 archaeological and historical sites, monuments and museums across the country will welcome the public under the light of the Full Moon admission free, while events will be held in 50 of these archaeological sites and museums. This year, additional dates have been added to the program on August 11, as well as on August 13, 19, 20 and 27, 2022. The program includes concerts, theater and dance performances, poetry evenings, film screenings, stargazing and guided tours, many of which will be administered in collaboration with the local government, cultural and landscape beautification associations.

The events will be carried out in accordance with the health and safety protocols set by Greek authorities for the operation of archaeological sites and museums to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

We wish to thank, the services of the General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage and their employees, for their annual support in coordinating the August Full Moon events program, as well as the services of General Directorate of Restoration, Museums and Technical Works, which is participating for the first time this year. It is their invaluable support that ensures the uninterrupted continuation of the institution of the August Full Moon events program at our monuments, for the last twenty-two years and counting. A program of events organized in carefree summers, as well as in difficult summers, during the years of the economic crisis, the pandemic, and this year amidst a neighboring war, reminding us that no matter the circumstances "above us there is a clear August sky, full of light and life" (Kostas Misailidis, War Correspondent in Smyrna, in 1922).

We cordially invite you all, to the archaeological sites, museums and monuments, on the moonlit August night.