Clean Monday - Kite Flying and more

Clean Monday (Kathara Deutera) is the first day of Lent in Greece. The term refers to the leaving behind of sinful attitudes and non-fasting foods. As the name indicates, people 'clean' their body and soul - having spent 3 weeks consuming a lot of meat during the carnival, now they stop eating meat, dairy products and eggs. Instead, on this first day of Lent, people consume shellfish, taramosalata, a special kind of azyme bread, (baked only on that day, called lagana), halva, gigandes and beans. 

For most Greeks, celebrating Clean Monday means going to the hillside or by the sea to enjoy a fasting picnic and fly their kites. Kites symbolise the ascension of the soul to God and the start of its purification by reaching close to him.

On this Clean Monday, which this year fell on the 27th of February, we decided to go to our nearest hill, Pani, which is a 25 minute walk, to take part in the festivities.

It's a small green oasis

spring flowers are already blooming

Walking uphill, we reached a plateau where quite a few people were flying their kites

Good views of Athens here, despite the mist

We then decided to walk up to the highest point of the hill, taking this path

a modernist house on our right

we continued on our way

Lots of people around, and lots of kites in the sky

We reached the top

Good views of the sea from here

as well as the northern suburbs and the Hymettus mountain range

below, we could also see the Pani park where the day's celebrations were taking place - our next destination

Most kite-flyers were dads while their children look on, so it was good seeing this little girl flying her kite - she was very good at it

We started walking down again, 

and reached the park - it was heaving

the play area

the adult exercise area which on that day was taken over by people having fun

Lots of kids playing football

lots of people listening 

to the band that played folk music

and then people started dancing.

On the way home we stopped at our local bakery to buy a loaf of lagana.  The bakery was decorated with, what else? kites.