Picture banner above: Lagana, olives, prawns, octopus, calamari, halva...
KALI SARAKOSTI!
KALI SARAKOSTI!
Fresh 'lagana' with sesame or chopped olives. Yumm (foto emmakay) I got up this morning really early just to get to the bakery down in the village by the sea. I went to pick up my “Lagana”, the sesame bread that is baked only today, this special day that marks the beginning of the Orthodox Lent.
Today the whole country celebrates the religious public holiday of Clean Monday (Greek: Καθαρά Δευτέρα – Kathara Deftera), and is the start of what we call “the Clean Week” here in Greece. This is the first week of the seven weeks before Easter, and by tradition the forty-plus days of fasting that the Orthodox believers will subject themselves to. Greek Cyprus too celebrates this day with a public holiday and similar traditions.
Today the whole country celebrates the religious public holiday of Clean Monday (Greek: Καθαρά Δευτέρα – Kathara Deftera), and is the start of what we call “the Clean Week” here in Greece. This is the first week of the seven weeks before Easter, and by tradition the forty-plus days of fasting that the Orthodox believers will subject themselves to. Greek Cyprus too celebrates this day with a public holiday and similar traditions.
Clean Monday, loosely translated into Ash Monday or Pure Monday, is based on the religious practice of shedding sinful behaviour and abstaining from what is called non-fasting foods. Last night a special service took place in the churches during which those present will have bowed down before each other and asked each other for forgiveness. In accordance with religious tradition this will allow them to start Lent with a clean conscience, with forgiveness and with renewed Christian love. Much needed in these days of tremendous internal upheaval here in Greece... The purpose of fasting is to cleanse the body as well as the spirit in preparation for Easter, which is the most sacred of all religious traditions in the Greek Orthodox faith.
The theme of Clean Monday is based on the Scriptures (Isaiah 1:1-20):
Wash yourselves and ye shall be clean; put away the wicked ways from your souls before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, consider the fatherless, and plead for the widow. Come then, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and though they be red like crimson, I will make them white as wool (v. 16-18).
(On a side note: Remarkable here is the fact that the symbolic colours of red and white are also reflected in the traditional Martenitsi (see my post on 1 March - Chestita Baba Marta) which are handed out in Greece’s northern neighbour Bulgaria as symbols marking the beginning of Spring, although I have not come across any reference material that would actually link the latter to the Scriptures.)
Back to Greece, though.
It is also customary during this week to carry out what is known as Spring Cleaning, and it is a widespread tradition that all houses and dwellings in general receive a thorough going-through during this week. In the villages where traditions are upheld even more strictly, you’ll find people whitewashing or painting the walls of their houses, while inside the house it’s the time that cupboards, wardrobes and drawers are cleaned and freshened up.
Yesterday, Sunday was the last day of Carnival, the last day that in many traditional Greek Orthodox families people will have eaten meat or any animal by-product. Instead, it’s customary to revert to Lent food.
The theme of Clean Monday is based on the Scriptures (Isaiah 1:1-20):
Wash yourselves and ye shall be clean; put away the wicked ways from your souls before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, consider the fatherless, and plead for the widow. Come then, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and though they be red like crimson, I will make them white as wool (v. 16-18).
(On a side note: Remarkable here is the fact that the symbolic colours of red and white are also reflected in the traditional Martenitsi (see my post on 1 March - Chestita Baba Marta) which are handed out in Greece’s northern neighbour Bulgaria as symbols marking the beginning of Spring, although I have not come across any reference material that would actually link the latter to the Scriptures.)
Back to Greece, though.
It is also customary during this week to carry out what is known as Spring Cleaning, and it is a widespread tradition that all houses and dwellings in general receive a thorough going-through during this week. In the villages where traditions are upheld even more strictly, you’ll find people whitewashing or painting the walls of their houses, while inside the house it’s the time that cupboards, wardrobes and drawers are cleaned and freshened up.
Yesterday, Sunday was the last day of Carnival, the last day that in many traditional Greek Orthodox families people will have eaten meat or any animal by-product. Instead, it’s customary to revert to Lent food.
Kites high up the sky! (foto courtesy of Frosso!) Today – weather permitting – most families will have taken to the hills and the fields or the villages near the towns, and if the weather permits, be armed with massive picnics. I have to say that at this very moment it does not look like that’s going to be the case here, so it’s keep fingers crossed! The idea is to spend the day together with family and friends and enjoy the trip out, and if there are younger children let them fly the traditional Clean Monday kites. In the past, when the weather gods have smiled upon us, we have witnessed the skies full of bright and colourful long-tailed kites hovering in the air. A beautiful and refreshing sight! The kids simply love it. I have tried to research the history related to the origins of the kite-flying but have been unable to come up with anything... Pity, it’s something that really bugs me!
Seafood galore (foto downloaded) After the dark and cold winter months it’s in general the first time of the year we see the “townies” come down to their summer homes by the sea and let their children enjoy a day of fun and tradition. People gather and dance and eat and drink all day long. Tavernas are bursting full (although I doubt that will be the case in today’s difficult economic times), traditional music blaring out loud, while catering to the special needs of the day: plates piled high with taramosalata (pink or white fish roe), skordalia (a delicious garlic dip made with either bread or potato puree), fava bean dip, marouli (shredded green lettuce salad), olives, gigantes plaki (oven-baked broad beans in a tomato sauce), kalamari, chtapodi (marinated or grilled octopus), sarmadakia (vine leaves stuffed with rice), horta (boiled mixed wild greens with lemon and olive oil), lachanosalata (Greek-style coleslaw with lemon and olive oil)... all served with the typical ‘lagana’ bread, and washed down with ample ouzo, tsipouro, wine, beer...(police have been instructed to be especially vigilant and there will be increased road checks – these special celebration days unfortunately have the tendency to result in numerous horrific road accidents...).
The soft halva... heaven on a plate! To finish the meal in style, dessert is halva, either the soft semolina-like pudding with cinnamon and almonds or the harder Makedoniko variety, made from tahini and which tastes delicious with some sprinkles of lemon and cinnamon! It also comes with cocoa or almonds... I can never decide which of the two very different varieties I prefer more... they're both absolutely yummy!
Food during lent excludes anything that involves “animals with blood” – or so I was told, when first introduced to this practice many years ago. What is allowed are mussels, cuttlefish, calamari, octopus, oysters, shrimps, and even snails! All other animal meat and by-products are on the no-no list, and this includes poultry and game as well as milk, cheese and eggs. Fish and seafood with backbones are also on the no-no list while even olive oil, olives and wine are restricted. For those who follow the strict religious fast even the number of meals per day is limited. However, nowadays most people don’t follow this harsh regime of fasting, and the younger ones will only revert to some kind of fast during the last week before Easter. Also, people who cannot fast for health reasons and the old and infirm are exempt.
Kira Sarakosti - Lady Lent Another traditional curiosity related to this special period on the Greek religious calendar is Lady Lent, a figure who is an important part of the seven weeks of lent: Kira Sarakosti, her Greek name, is a small figure baked of bread dough which features something really unusual: she has seven legs and her hands are folded as if in prayer. Lady Lent’s seven legs each represent one week of the fasting period. There is a cross on her forehead, and she has no mouth, indicating that she can’t eat because she is fasting. In modern Greek households the actual act of baking this figure has started to disappear, instead being replaced by children cutting the woman figure from cardboard. It is customary to place Kira Sarakosti near the icon centre which every Greek home has, and each Sunday in Lent that passes, one of her legs will be removed. In other words, Lady Lent serves like some kind of calendar for the countdown to Pascha – the Greek Easter, and undoubtedly the biggest family feast of the religious year. Lady Lent will lose her last leg on the Saturday before Easter...
As is often the case with traditional celebrations, these festivities can take on different activities in different parts of the country. A clear example of this takes place in a small town north of Larissa in Central Greece, called Tyrnavos. The locals from the region gather in the small church of the Prophet Elias to make the traditional “bourani” soup, which is a vegetable soup made from spinach, stinging nettles and vinegar, all boiled for hours on end. During the preparation of this bourani, people tease each other with phallic objects and indecent language is at the order of the day.... Read more about this not so Clean, but rather Dirty Monday, in a rather funny story by a lady called Theodora Tongas at http://www.odyssey.gr/default.asp?entryid=2949&pageid=4&tablepageid=50&langid=2
Another traditional annual Kathari Deftera event takes place in the village of Galaxidi, a popular fishing village on the Corinthian Gulf, not far from Delphi. Here too, Clean Monday turns out to be anything but clean. During the Carnival period preceding today, every night fires are lit and the festive events reach a high point on this first day of Lent. When the carnival float parade finishes, people gather together to have lunch, either at home or in the fields around the village. After lunch they all congregate on the central marketplace, the plateia, armed with bags full of flour and ash and engage in a veritable battle of emptying these bags all over each other. Unsuspecting passersby are not exempt from this traditional onslaught! You can see a short YouTube clip of the happenings here...
We shall be returning to our village down by the sea later on in the hope that the weather gods show some mercy, allowing me to take some pictures of kites high in the sky as well as capturing some of the locals and visitors enjoying a good time together, casting aside the harsh realities of life at the moment...
Let me sign off for today in the hope that we can all find that forgiveness in our hearts that would allow us to have not only a Clean Monday, but as much of a Clean Year as is humanly possible...
Καλή Σαρακοστή! (pronounce ka-lee sarakos-tee!) Happy Lent to all of you...
Smiles
Emm xx
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