Kalampaki is a village and a former municipality in the Drama peripheral unit, East Macedonia and Thrace

East Macedonia and Thrace

East Macedonia and Thrace is one of the thirteen regions of Greece. It consists of the northeastern parts of the country, comprising the eastern part of the region of Macedonia along with the region of Thrace, and the islands of Thasos and Samothrace....

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Doxato

Doxato

Doxato is a town and municipality in the Drama peripheral unit, in East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Kalampaki.-Municipality:...

, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. It is 12 km to the south of Drama

Drama, Greece

Drama , the ancient Drabescus , is a town and municipality in northeastern Greece. Drama is the capital of the peripheral unit of Drama which is part of the East Macedonia and Thrace periphery. The town is the economic center of the municipality , which in turn comprises 53.5 percent of the...

. The Kalambaki municipal unit consists of the villages of Kalampaki, Ftelia

Ftelia

This article is about the beach, for the village see Ftelia .Ftelia is a beach on the island of Mykonos. Its northern location has established the beach as a windsurfer's paradise, as there is almost always a strong wind blowing...

, Agia Paraskevi, Kalamonas and Nerofraktis. Most of the population is employed in the agricultural sector, with tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

, corn

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

 and cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 being the main products.

The population of Kalambaki consists mainly of descendants of four population groups, Pontus

Pontus

Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...

 Greeks

Pontic Greeks

The Pontians are an ethnic group traditionally living in the Pontus region, the shores of Turkey's Black Sea...

, Greeks of Eastern Thrace, Greeks of Asia Minor

Asia Minor

Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

 (mainly from Cappadocia

Cappadocia

Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province.In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine...

, whose ancestors spoke Turkish but were Greek Orthodox Christians in religion) and Greeks whose ancestors had been living in Kalambaki already before the Treaty of Lausanne

Treaty of Lausanne

The Treaty of Lausanne was a peace treaty signed in Lausanne, Switzerland on 24 July 1923, that settled the Anatolian and East Thracian parts of the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The treaty of Lausanne was ratified by the Greek government on 11 February 1924, by the Turkish government on 31...

 (1923) was ratified.

In the vicinity of Kalambaki Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 milestones have been discovered indicating that the ancient Via Egnatia

Via Egnatia

The Via Egnatia was a road constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. It crossed the Roman provinces of Illyricum, Macedonia, and Thrace, running through territory that is now part of modern Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey.Starting at Dyrrachium on the...

 passed very close by.

Every year on January 18, the feast day of Saint Athanasius, a religious festival named the "Kourbani" is held in Kalambaki.
It is possibly the Christian equivalent of the Muslim Kurban. During this day a dish consisting of veal

Veal

Veal is the meat of young cattle , as opposed to meat from older cattle. Though veal can be produced from a calf of either sex and any breed, most veal comes from male calves of dairy cattle breeds...

 in a type of wheat

Wheat

Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

 known as pligouri

Bulgur

Bulgur is a cereal food made from several different wheat species, most often from durum wheat. In the United States it is most often made from white wheat. Its use is most common in Middle Eastern cuisine, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Armenia and Bulgaria...

is produced and shared among the participants in the festival.