A custom that the refugees from eastern Thrace brought with them and that is revived every year in Kalamaki of Drama, on the day of the feast of Agios Athanasios.

The custom dates back to 1922 and goes back to the inhabitants of Krionero in Eastern Thrace. The refugees who settled in Kalampaki and other areas of eastern Macedonia, did not forget what connected them to their ancestral homes: customs, traditions, celebrations, songs, festivals and feasts that do not let the mind forget and the memories fade in the passage of time.

According to custom, every year, at the dawn of the feast of Agios Athanasios, God sent a deer to the forecourt of the temple of the Krionerites, which, after resting, was “sacrificed” with the blessing of the priest early in the morning of the feast by the “sacrificers “, who cooked it and then distributed it to all the residents. This food was called “qurbani” which in the Turkish language has the meaning of sacrifice and offering.

One year when there was a lot of snow, the deer was late in coming and the “sacrificers” alarmed by the delay, hastened the sacrifice without letting it rest, as custom required. Since then, the deer has not been seen again because, as the Kryonerites believed, God was angry with them because they did not observe the rules of the sacrifice. Since then, the stag was replaced by a bull or cow.