The pig-killing feast is the proccess – repeated each year so as to have become a custom – by which the products of the pig are prepared. Teamwork, gastronomic delights, celebration and song purge the custom of its central – albeit momentary – event, the killing of the beast. Indeed, these celebrations are an essential ingredient of pig-killing, providing the Dionysian current through which cultural matter flows direct from antiquity.
This tradition is still alive even in our day, with roots that are lost in the mist of time.
Throughout antiquity and the Byzantine period the almost exact same thing took place – for the goodwill of the gods and the pleasure of men, since even the gods like to be pampered. And if the gods are not interested, then the humans still have a need for it. They will strive «not by bread alone». They will take care of the little things, the seasoning and the festivities. This is what the ‘ancient’ Mykonians were like, so why shouldn’t the modern ones be the same?