by Alexia Vlachou
ATHENS, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Bathed in moonlight, dozens of archaeological sites and museums across Greece remained open at night to give visitors an opportunity to celebrate August's full moon on Thursday.
Music, dance, theater, art exhibitions, film screenings, poetry and star gazing were on the menu of the activities.
At the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, a unique full moon celebration with a night of storytelling by the archaeologists of the museum and music inspired by ancient texts, offered a unique dialogue between the moon and the archaeological masterpieces.
"August is like a dream and full moon is charming. To open our museum with such beautiful events, the 'storytelling of the nights', we create an interactive relationship with our visitors. We see people's joy, we feel happy for them, we all dream together under the silvery moon," the director of the National Archaeological Museum, Maria Lagogianni, told Xinhua.
"People keep coming until midnight with different purposes. One wants to watch the night storytelling, the other wants to stroll around the garden and someone else enjoys the music performance," Lagogianni added.
Many visitors shared Lagogianni's enthusiasm. "This place... brings in our memories the glory of Greece," visitor Theodoros Kanavaris told Xinhua, adding, "Such events should continue, as they are healing our souls. But most of all, we connect with the history of our ancestors."
For some others, August's full moon offers light of hope in these difficult times where Greek people suffer after years of recession.
At the courtyard of the Acropolis Museum, people gathered to enjoy jazz performance by the Greek neo-swing band "The Swingin Cats" which travelled the audience on a journey to older times.
Meanwhile, some visitors preferred to enjoy the permanent exhibition as well as the temporary exhibition "Dodona -- The oracle of sounds."
Every year since 1996, the Greek Ministry of Culture and Tourism organized free events and late-night openings in ancient historical and heritage surroundings for the public to enjoy on five nights around the August full moon.
