Saturday 17 March 2018

Another catch-up Post - Clean Monday - also known as Green Monday

Another Catch-Up Post


Today is “Kathari Deftera,” Greek for Clean Monday -  Clean Monday puts an end to the preceding Carnival celebrations, inviting all Orthodox Christians to leave behind the sinful attitudes associated with Carnival festivities and non-fasting foods, which were largely consumed during the three weeks of the Carnival.  As a result, the feast, which is a public holiday in Greece and Cyprus, is celebrated with outdoor excursions, the consumption of shellfish and other fasting foods, as well as the widespread custom of building and flying kites.

This is our eighth Clean Monday (also known as Green Monday) and on all previous occasions the weather has dashed any chance of reasonable kite flying - either due to it being flat calm or hurricane conditions!!!


most important feasts all over Greece, each year commencing the 40-day period of the Great Lent for the Eastern Greek Orthodox Church, which is called “Sarakosti.” The feast begins on the first day of the 7th week before the Orthodox Easter Sunday.  




Today the morning started with some sunshine and a bit of a nip in the air and a light breeze which was a good start and we decided to get the kites out and go along to Pittokopos and stand on the ridge and see what happened.


The kite preparation is the Clean Monday equivalent of the Christmas fairy light check - we seem to make a habit of putting those things away unchecked or unworking and then we have a job putting it right on the day that they are needed.  We have this rather snazzy two string kite (which never seems to want to fly) and a cheap and cheerful box kite which usually is willing!!!
We found our spot overlooking Chrysochou Bay - it was a beautiful day to be outside with the land looking green and plenty of wild flowers around.  The two string kite was an unmitigated failure and after a brief Wiseman difference of opinion (because I fail to take instruction properly) we binned that one in favour of the cheapo which flew no problem at all even with me at the controls!!!!!  We had the help of a local guy who was passing by telling us we needed to be up a bit higher to get better air movement at least that is what we think he was telling us but he didn't speak much English so we cannot be sure but once the kite was airborne he was ecstatic and yelled bravo whilst slapping John on the back before he drove off leaving us just everso slightly bewildered!! 

We drove a circuitous route back to the village taking in our surroundings and having a real Ain't We Lucky moment then settled down to a quite hour or so in the warmth of the conservatory with the cats for company.  We were meeting up with Rob and Di at the Hotel before they shoot off to the UK for Rob to visit his Mum.  I duffered because was convinced we were meeting at 6.30pm but it was 6.00pm so I was rather grateful that John made us leave early (for him in time) so in fact we arrived at the hotel just after 6.00pm!!

We had a lovely evening at the Hotel which was rather busy with a college group from Dubai who were carrying out their Duke of Edinburgh at Kritou Tera.    We had a couple of carafe's of wine and (eventually) a platter of fruit after a newbie waiter delivered ours to the wrong people and they started eating it thinking it was just a standard thing that the hotel did!!!  Glad the Veasey's are only going for a short while - we will miss them!!

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