The First Picnic of the Year
The first picnic of the year for us is on Kathara Deftera—Clean Monday. It’s considered as one of the most important annual feast as it marks the first day of spring as well as the first day of the forty-day Lent period until Easter. As it is a public holiday, people celebrate this day with excursions, picnics, dishes of shellfish recipes along with other fasting foods and kite flying. Another thing that I appreciate the most is the widespread custom of building a kite from scratch! A technique passed down from one generation to another, this craft teaches patience and precision. It’s truly amazing the way they put a kite together! For the ones that have mastered this art, it brings a sense of pride when their kite’s first flight is a success! For me personally, it’s all about the kite flying! I just love looking at them way up in the sky!
Lots of preparing goes into this day. I usually make a list of the recipes I’ll be making as it’s tradition to eat non-dairy, non-meat recipes on this day. So, the picnic consists of recipes with vegetable, legumes and shell fish. On the day of, we pack our car along with our dogs and head to our village. Just a few kilometres from our country home, there is the most idyllic spot where Clean Monday’s celebrations take place! And that’s where all the excitement happens!
Families gather and set up their picnics while children explore nature’s first blooms. The view of lush green hills and wildflowers are the first signs of spring that make the heart skip a beat for family outings we’ll get to relish in and al fresco evenings ahead. Springtime’s mild, pleasant weather is most idyllic for open-air things…not to mention the variety of ensemble I get to enjoy before summer’s sizzle! Hoping this year’s weather will be just as favourable as last year’s! Fingers crossed!
Talk soon!xx
