Traditions and Customs on Clean Monday, Koulouma, Lent

Traditions and Customs on Clean Monday

The frenzied celebrations of Triode are completed on Clean Monday. It is a special day for our country, as it symbolizes the spiritual and physical "purification" before the solemnity of Lent.

Getaways on Clean Monday

This is the last chance for celebration, and the countryside is at its best! Loud live traditional music, singing and dancing, Lenten food in abundance, the sky "multicolored" by the spectacular custom of flying kites, which, by their crazy flights, are welcoming Spring, offering unique moments of joy to young and older children...

All of Greece welcomes Lent with its own unique customs. Let's look at some of them:

Vonitsa, the custom of "Straw man Gligorakis"
Gligorakis, it is said, was a fisherman who left the sea looking for his fate on the land. Nowadays fishermen of Vonitsa condemn his act and they punish him on this day of the year. So, they construct a straw fisherman, tie him up on a donkey and wander around the village. As the day continues, they start a great feast with songs and dances and then they throw the poor Gligorakis in a flaming boat in the open sea.
The "Vlach Wedding" in Thebes
This custom dates back to 1830 and has to do with the matchmakings that were done then. Today is taking place the traditional shaving of the groom and the decoration of the bride, which is actually a man! Alongside, all the attendees celebrate Koulouma with satirical songs and dancing.
The custom of “Moutzourides” in Polysitos of Vistonida.
Here the preparation starts one day before with the baking of traditional Lagana and the cooking of bean soup by the women of the village, so to offer them to their guests the next day. Their guests will face a surprise, as two masked persons welcome them trying to smudge them with the soot from the cauldron, where the bean soup was boiled, so everyone can celebrate Clean Monday masked!
The custom of "Agas" in Mesta of Chios.
The custom of Agas has its roots to the Turk occupation and so far is the same in fun during the day of Clean Monday. Agas invade the village with its entourage and sits in the central square. There, the people is gathered and a “trial" is taking place for various offenses attributed to him and he pays the appropriate fine! All of the attendees participate in this process. The money that is gathered from the supposed fines fund the Cultural Association of the village. It is an original custom with humor and charitable character, too.
In Poros we meet the “Xartysma”, i.e. the cleaning of kitchen utensils from grease and the leftovers from the feast of Carnival.
In Alexandroupoli, a resident masquerades as Bey and wanders in town handing out wishes for good prosperity and health.
In many villages of Corfu revives the traditional dance of the Priests. The first dancers are the priests followed by the elders of the village.
At The People's Court of Immoral Deeds in Karpathos are exchanged indecent gestures among the attendees, and this leads them to the "court" of Tzafiedes (gendarmes) for justice by the respecting elders of the island.
ΤWe find the custom of Alevromoutzouroma in Galaxidi, with the circled carnival dances and the dancers floured and smudged!
On Clean Monday, the residents and the visitors of Galaxidi descend to the market, where the "smudging" and "flouring" takes place. That is done by bags full of soot and others of flour that people are throwing on unsuspecting guests and among them. The beach is converted, very quickly, into a battlefield. Dense clouds of flour and soot.
The custom has deep roots, maybe since the Byzantine era, when clowns of racecourses were painting their faces. But its heyday was in the era of sailing shipping, i.e. from 1840 and thereafter. And this because, then, the sailboats were traveling from March to November, so the events of the Carnival were both and farewell events.
In almost all of Greece - and in different variations - the dance event, the so called “Gaitanaki (Maypole)”, custom brought by the refugees from Asia Minor, excites young and older people.
The Koutroulis’ Wedding in Methoni - the revival of a real marriage in the 14th century - it takes place every Clean Monday with strong satirical mood and teasing for the bride.
The revival of a rural carnival in Nedousa, in the southern Peloponnese, where the guests participate actively in an ancient ritual for prosperity and fertility.