Cave of Arsali (Saint Jerusalem)

In the higher grounds of the fir-covered Oiti Mountain, stands an enormous cave that looks like a Cyclops's eye that is vigilant for his kingdom. It is the cave of Arsali (Saint Jerusalem) where the residents of Ypati, in her honor, formed an internal part into a church and celebrate her on the Thursday after the Orthodox Easter with festivities accorded to the local customs. The Icon of the Saint was transferred there to be saved from the heterodox. Only men go up to the cave the specific period while women and those who could not go up gather on Thursday morning in the beautiful place called 'Perivolia' that has a landscape of natural contrast in relation to the wilderness of the mountain because it is full of fields and trees, wild as wild as well regular. In the plateau there is a fount from which fresh, flowing wanted flows that springs from the centre of the mountain of Oiti and a few metres away a perennial plane which has a huge cavity in its trunk where somebody can sit to rest. When the service in the cave ends, someone signs to depart and everybody walk down towards Perivolia, where the feast starts. Everybody go down to the square, where the procession of the icon takes place, which is brought from the cave as well as sprinkling holy water to the congregation. In the evening Arsaliotes dance and the boys are impatient to become fully-fledged Arsaliotes. Whoever comes to Ypati is sure to become an Arsaliotis.