The custom of Clean Monday
To ethimo tis Katharas Defteras
Clean Monday (Greek: Καθαρή Δευτέρα), also known as Pure Monday, Ash Monday, Monday of Lent or Green Monday, is the first day of the Eastern Orthodox Christian and Eastern Catholic Great Lent. It is a movable feast that occurs at the beginning of the 7th week (40 days) before Orthodox Easter Sunday.
On Shrove Monday Orthodox stop eating animal foods and foods produced by animals and start fasting [Sarakosti (The Lent)], which represents the 40 days that Jesus fasted in the desert.
Also the joy of all, and especially children on Shrove Monday, is flying the kite! Some information is interpreted by flying the kite as the desire of man to scare away evil.
The menu of Shrove Monday is usually accompanied by some of the following recipes:
- Lagana
- Revithokefedes (chickpeas flitters)
- Roasted Florina’s peppers
- Olive paste
- Anchovy with oregano
- Grilled octopus
- Saganaki with shrimps
- Kolokithokeftedes (zucchini flitters) – but remove the cheese!!!
- Taramosalata (fish roe salad)
- Giant beans in the oven – but remove the sausage!!!
- Dolmadakia yalantzi
- Grape spoon sweet