Clean Monday

Clean Monday is traditionally celebrated outdoors, and is characterized by an exodus of city folk to the villages of their parents and ancestors. Although it marks the start of a period of fasting, where meat, fish and dairy products are forbidden, these days Clean Monday often turns into an enormous feast of shellfish, tarama salad, octopus and squid, bean and vegetable dishes accompanied by ‘lagana’, a special flat bread that is eaten on this particular day. Throughout the country one can see people dancing traditional Greek dances, and children and adults alike flying kites.

Flying kites on this day is a relatively recent addition to the celebration of Clean Monday. While kites were considered a predominantly Asian custom, they are also shown on Greek clay vessels. They are thought to have been invented by a mathematician, Archytas of Taranto, Sicily in the 4th century BC. The flying of kites on this religious holiday represents a look to the skies, a mind that lifts itself over materialism to heaven and a soul that climbs ever higher, and is a very appropriate means to mark the beginning of Lent.  ~taken from a Newscomer Bulletin written by Maria Vertopoulos.

So what did I do today?  I met Miah and Dwain at Starbucks where we also bought a kite for Harper!  Then we went up to their landlords to have a feast!  There was so much food!  There were 5 adults and 2 teenage girls (whom hardly ate anything!) and Harper. 

There were 7 different fish - cuttlefish, fried calamari, octopus, a white fish, jumbo shrimp, tamata fish roe salad, a fish dish dwain made which comes from Peru, and fresh live clams which were actually moving so much they were falling off the plate!  Then the traditional bread for this day lasaga.  Radishes, a green salad, fried peppers, black-eyed peas, spinach pies, an artichoke dish, pickled onion bulbs, pickled stuffed eggplant and stuffed grapes leaves.  And my choices to wash it down was Ouzo or Resina.  I dislike both passionately.  I drank Ouzo.   And then we had the traditional hlava - made with tahini no sugar.  That is good but I was so full.

Then the dancing started.  Let's see if I can add a video.
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

After lunch, Harper napped and dwain, miah and I played cards.  Then we took Harper and the kite out for its try.  We/dwain successfully flew the kite in the mud parking lot as he scurried around large puddles, trees and trash!