Clean Monday is the first day of Great Lent, the Easter fast. It is considered by the folklorists to be the epilogue of the Bacchic festivities of the Apocrya, which actually begin on Shrove Tuesday and end on Clean Monday.
In some regions of Greece on Clean Monday they “clean” what is left of the non-fasting foods of the Halloween, In other parts of Greece, such as e.g. in Epirus, the housewives clean the pots and all the copper utensils from the carnival grease with hot ash water until they sparkle and paint the sidewalks white.
The dish of the day includes fasting foods, as a detox from the rich feast of Halloween. Halva, taramas, olives, pickles, seafood, beans, are on the agenda. The fasting meals are accompanied by lagana, a type of unleavened bread, elliptical in shape and flattened for easy baking. The laganah seems to have been used by the Israelites on the night of their Exodus from Egypt, under the guidance of Moses. Since then, it was enforced by the Mosaic Law for all the days of the Passover festival, until Christ at his last Passover blessed the leavened bread. The history of lagana runs through the entire nutritional tradition from ancient times to the present day. Aristophanes in the “Churches” says “Lagana falls”, while Horace in his texts, mentions the lagana as “The sweetening of the poor”. Related to the day’s fast and the municipal satirical lament:
Do you hear what Shrove Monday ordered?
Creos is dead, he is dead, Tyros is struggling
Leek raises the tail and Cremydos the chin
Pack your bags, sharpen your blades
and on the sycamore tree, let’s chew acorns.
The celebration of Clean Monday in the countryside is called Koulouma. The etymology of the word has Latin (columna = pillar or cumulus = heap, top) or Albanian origin (colum = clean). In the Municipality of Athens, the Kouloumas are celebrated on the Hill of Filoppapos, as in many Municipalities of the country, with an offering of beans and fasting food to the citizens.
A necessary complement of Maundy Monday is the flying of the kite, with the various colors and designs, from young and old, probably to fly away any worries of winter, since spring is coming and everything, at least in nature, is happier because of flowering and the improvement of the weather.
Sharp athyrostomy and scathing satire are among the characteristics of Maundy Monday in many of its celebrations across the territory:
The Powder War in Galaxidi is a custom that has been preserved since 1801. In those years, even though Galaxidi was under Turkish occupation, all the inhabitants waited for Halloween to have fun and dance in circles. One circle for women, one for men. They wore masks or simply painted their faces with charcoal. Then flour, flour, shoe polish and ocher were added.
Vlach Wedding in Thebes. It is a custom that has been around since 1830, after the liberation of the highlands. The Vlachs, i.e. the shepherds from Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly and Roumeli, then left their barren land and found fertile land further south. The spectacle is excellent, the wedding procession colorful, the music that accompanies it (pipis, dulcimer, etc.) extremely lively.
Koutroulis’s Wedding in Methoni, Messinia. Carnival wedding, which has been going on since the 14th century. Nowadays, the newlywed couple is two men, who together with their relatives go to the square, where the wedding takes place with a priest and a best man. The dowry agreement is read and a three-cover feast follows.
In Messinia Messinia there is a reenactment of the execution of an old woman, the old Sykos, who, according to tradition, was hanged in the Kremala place of the city, by order of Ibrahim Pasha, because she had the courage, explaining to him a dream she had seen, to tell him that his campaign and himself would come to a bitter end due to the reaction and vigor of the revolted Greeks. After the performance, each visitor can be “hanged” by the gallows fakers. On the afternoon of Clean Monday there is a parade with cheerleaders, floats, disguised children and adults and dance groups.
Burani in Tyrnavos. Burani is a vegetable soup without oil, around the preparation of which the entire scene of the game is set up with phallic symbols and daring teasing by the Buranis.
The People’s Court of Immoral Acts operates in Karpathos. Some make bad gestures to others and are arrested by the Jafiedes (guards) to be taken to the Court, which is made up of the island’s dignitaries. Improvised jokes and laughter are followed by a three-cover feast.
In the communities of Potamia, Kaloxido and Livadia of Naxos, the inhabitants dress as Cordelatoi or Leventes. The Cordelatos are dressmakers and their second name Leventes is attributed to the pirates. Close behind them are the robbers, the Sparratori, who grab the girls to force them into the dance and the party, which lasts until the morning.
In the villages of Merona and Melidonia of Rethymnon, customs such as stealing the bride, Kantis, smearing are being revived, which, combined with good wine and the sounds of the lyre, are a unique experience.
In Skyros, the custom of Trata takes place, which refers directly to an Aristophanic custom of seafaring life with a measured recitation of satirical verses about current affairs and culminates with the mystagogic dance of all the island’s inhabitants, in traditional local costumes in the central square.
In Archangelos of Rhodes, the events of Clean Monday culminate with the “mouzomata” and “aleuromata”, alongside the feast, disguises and satire.
In Megala Kalyvia, Trikala prefecture, every year on Clean Monday and for more than a century there is a reenactment of the traditional Karakouni wedding.
In Pentalofo Kozani, the locals don’t fly kites on Maundy Monday, but improvised, small balloons they have built themselves.
In Vonitsa, the custom of Gligorakis is revived every year, on Clean Monday.
The custom of the Camel is being revived in the village of Kaina in the municipality of Apokoronou in Crete.
In the Nea Magnesia district of Lamia, the Neomagnisiotikos Gamos is being revived.
Source: sansimera.gr