The Clean Monday in Greece

Today was the "Clean Monday" or "Ashmonday" as it was known among the older generations. The Clean Monday is the monday after the fourth and final carneval sunday. It signifies the beginning of the 40-day period of fasting. On the 41th day it should be Easter Sunday. That is why women used to clean all their kitchen stuff on that day using ashes because they thought this purifies them from the meat. The christian orthodox fasting is a very interesting one and has a set of rules about what one is allowed to eat and what not. For example olives are allowed but olive oil not. Meat is not allowed but fish is. On Clean Monday people go out on the countryside and have picnicks with the traditional bread made for that day especially called "Lagana". Its a flat white bread. We also eat a lot of halvas on that day (a sweet out of sesame cream and sugar or honey). The funniest part is that kids get to fly kites through the air. So you can imagine that the greek sky is full of kites on every Clean Monday. I am not sure how this custom was established. This year the weather was very bad here unfortunately, we had very strong winds blowing that prevented most people to go out. I have a Pocahontas kite resting on the wall of my room from last years Clean Monday. I didnt get to fly it this year again. #$%$!