By Dimitris Xygalatas
Inside a stuffy, overcrowded, and overheated room, a group of 40 people are dancing, sweating and breathing heavily, moaning and crying. They have been dancing nonstop for the better part of three days, carrying heavy icons of their saints. Occasionally they collapse on the floor, only to resume dancing after regaining their senses. At the culmination of the ceremony, devotees exit the room barefooted to continue their dance over a pile of glowing hot embers.
I first saw a scene like this back in 2005, when I traveled to northern Greece to conduct my first fieldwork for my doctorate in anthropology. In five different villages, groups of Orthodox Christians called the Anastenaria hold this annual festival in honor of Saints Constantine and Helen. The Anastenaria describe this experience using words like strain, struggle, and suffering. But at the same time, they often describe it as a process of fulfillment, and even healing.
One elderly woman, for example, told me the story of how becoming a fire-walker changed her life. She had been suffering from depression, and for years she…
