Greek Shaolin Cultural Organization
少林希腊文化組织

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The established MYGDONIA Festival is an institution where the cultural events of the year are completed and this year was held for the 10th consecutive year and the 6th consecutive year with participation from abroad. This is an event that members, male and female students and masters of the Greek Shaolin Federation are looking forward to as they meet with all EPOS Shaolin Cultural Centers to share new hopes together and to recover old moments full of teaching and Shaolin culture.

The 6th International and 10th Hellenic Martial Arts Festival MYGDONIA took place on Saturday 25th (17.00pm) and Sunday 26th (9.00am) November 2017, at the Laginon Sports Center of Lagadas Municipality, in collaboration with the Greek Martial Arts Federation, ASGASG. Mygdonia and the Municipality of Lagada under the auspices of the Region of Central Macedonia.

The Greek Shaolin Cultural Organization, as every year, took part in the Festival, making a brilliant presence, with a group of 60 male and female Students coming from the Associations with whom they collaborate. The group, headed by EPOS Director, Master Stavridis Iordanis and the Director of POKESA Master Katakalaios Dimitris, was accompanied by masters Antoniou Efi, Kokkalas Lambros, Kapatsoulias Panagiotis, Kalogeropoulos Ioannis, Kanavos Dionisis, Altanis Theodoros, Stavrakos Marios, Stavridou Alexandra, Alexiou Spyros, Vassilopoulos Ioannis, Giannakopoulos Konstantinos, Antari Konstantina and Takaki Danai.

On Saturday 25th, at 5pm, the first part of the events of the 4th International Martial Arts Festival was held in the busy Stadium of Laginon, where the audience of Thessaloniki and Northern Greece had arrived to enjoy the rich spectacle of all kinds of martial arts, featuring dozens of clubs with more than 600 participants. Five separate spaces were formed, racing stadiums were placed to host combat arts such as kick boxing, MMA etc, Karate and Kung Fu arts, respectively. In the area of Chinese martial arts, responsibility and supervision had, in accordance with the regulations and the statutes of EOPT, the masters of EPOS, who are in charge of judges, arbitrators, secretaries and organizing committees. The festival began after the opening greeting from the Deputy Mayor of Lagadas, Mr. Koutlianos Nikolaos.

On the Kung Fu platform, in the first part there was a demonstrative presence of students and teams, while in the second part there was an assessment of competence, difficulty and age criteria. The event was completed smoothly at 9 pm, with medals and commemorative diplomas.

On Sunday, November 26, 2017, the second and final part of the events began at 9am with the presentation of all the masters and the award of honorary plaques.

The Festival was completed with a highly impressive appearance of EPOS students, both individually and collectively, who presented techniques and forms with bare hands and weapons from the huge storehouse of Shaolin Culture. Shaolin Kung Fu, Shaolin Rou Quan, Shaolin Rou Ho Gun, Shaolin Dao, Shaolin Jian, Shaolin Gun, Shaolin Fan, and Shaolin Yuan Chan.

These events have the ultimate goal of gaining experience. All of us who are involved in them, we cultivate cooperation and sportsmanship. It is a feast for martial arts and for this reason is considered one of the largest and most successful of its kind. EPOS had a dynamic presence at all levels. At student level, from students that appeared for the first time and students of very young to advanced level. At Master level. Arbitration level. Secretariat support level. At the level of parents, friends, escorts and audiences. Once again, EPOS clarified that it has target and vision, said Master Katakalaios Dimitris.