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Clean Monday and Lent
During this period, the events in the Malia Demos were many.
In
Mohos the “Xinohondros and Mouzouthia”, a revival of this tradition from the
Mohos Cultural Association, was a great success. There was dancing, music,
hot xinohondros and lots of mouzouthia, in a fun climate with crowds of
people.
The
Malia Carnival, very successful with its “current events” floats, attracted
people from all around Crete, to its
dizzying rhythms and climate of outrageous fun.
Within the circle of time, however, everything stopped at some point to give
way to the next. So, the masked ones took off their masks and Clean Monday
arrived, the first day of Lent. The day is appropriately named as it marks
the beginning of fasting, and the soul and body cleansing of man.
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A characteristic Cretan
mandinatha goes like this:
The Carnival with its
music and games is out
And Lent with its olives
and onions is in
The Carnival beautiful
girl is finished
And the Lent
cabbage-bowl has arrived
On
Clean Monday in the Potamos area of Malia the kites flew and a Cretan feast
followed.
Now
there are games to be played and fun to be had on Clean Monday also. Besides
flying the kite, a tradition with its roots in the Far
East, there are some Cretan traditions, some of which will be
mentioned here.
Characteristic Games for Clean Monday:
The Shoemaker
:
He continually postpones
the patching of a styvani while having words with his customer.
The bear and its owner/trainer. The
Court (a court parody). The
hunchback old woman with her bat. The doctor and the deaf one. The oil of
the beggar(instead of oil the people just get sprayed with water).
The matchmaking of the bride.
The Dead One
The “dead one” is covered with plenty of greenery (donkey thorny weed) and
carnival ribbons. One can hear lamentations and improvised psalms. The “dead
one” stays absolutely still in his coffin. This particular tradition is
carried out throughout Crete but with variations. In the Stavrohori village in
Sitia the “dead one” is called Paschalis and he… rises under the threat of
water.
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