Clean Monday

Monday, in the Greek Orthodox calendar, was the first day of Lent. There are many traditions associated with this day, and I did my best to participate in all of them. On this day only, every bakery makes this special bread called λαγάνα (lagana). My apartment got two loaves. It is this delicious loaf of bread that is large and square in shape, covered in sesame seeds, and made without any animal byproducts which are forbidden in the traditional Lenten fast which starts this day.

Although I am not sure of its significance, another largely observed tradition is the flying of kites. My friends and I got ourselves a couple of kites and headed over to Filopapous Hill to fly them. We had little success until a Greek man came over and helped us retie it the proper way. It turns out there is a real science to it, and he spent a good twenty minutes working on our kite. He turned out to be a professor and he had a couple of his students with him, as well as his little niece. The students were two Turkish students studying in Athens for the semester. They spoke Turkish and English (and thus English with me) and he spoke Greek and Turkish (Turkish with them, Greek with me). I chatted with the girls for a while as he worked diligently on our semi-broken kite and eventually it was in flying condition.

It didn’t take long to get our kite up in the air. In fact, it got up so well it whipped the string quickly off the spool and the wind pulled our kite so far out that we could barely see it. Then the wind decided it very much liked our kite and tore it loose from the string. The kite-string collapsed on the ground and our kite flew hundreds of feet further across the sky until we could no longer even see a speck of it. Short-lived as it was, it was fun while it lasted and definitely cool to get to chat with those Turkish girls and their professor. Those Greeks never cease to amaze me when it comes to their willingness to help at times.

We ended the day right by heading out for some seafood as during Lent meat is not eaten at all. We ventured to the neighborhood of Petrolona, as suggested by one of our professors. While we were expecting a long row of tavernas, it turned out that most were closed (apparently not too surprising as many people leave Athens to be with family in their villages for the major holidays… and Monday was a national holiday). Finally we found one that was open and could accommodate all of us. They had a special menu for the day as there are many traditional foods that are eaten on Clean Monday. Luckily I had my handy little phrasebook with me that had a traditional Greek foods index to help us look up the various dishes (the owners told us they could not very easily translate the entire menu into English). With a little patience and a good memory we managed to decipher the whole thing and order successfully. The food was delicious as usual, although some were surprised with what they ordered (it turns out scuttlefish is squid and the shrimp/prawns come completely whole and must be deshelled by hand).

I believe according to Greek standards it was a very successful Clean Monday and I really enjoyed partaking in all of the traditions. This is what my time in Greece is supposed to be about… really getting to know the Greek culture and partaking in it, not just observing it.