Twas the night before the big fast!

So, tomorrow is Clean Monday! I wrote about it last year on my blog so you can read more about it here to remind yourselves!: http://typicalgreeklife.blogspot.com/2011/03/clean-monday.html

The Greek Easter is at a different time this year (so sorry to all you guys on Twitter who apparently started their fasting last week; you lost a week of meat!!)


Our 'Καθαρά Δευτέρα' marks the run up to Easter which is the holiest time of the year for Greeks! Being Sunday today (a.k.a. Souvla day), I imagine most of the Greeks will be having a massive feast to stuff in as much meat as they can before the fast starts tomorrow. 

For those of you who are not brave enough to give up meat, give up something else you love for 40 days instead! Get ready for some cranky Greeks for the next few months...! Katishi mas!

How Greek Is Your Love?

So it's Valentine's day... The day of lurrrve! 

Well, it's no news to you by now that Greeks invented everything, so of course they are also the masters of love too. Obviously. Think Aphrodite - Goddess of Love and her son Eros (which is come from the Greek word "Erota" which is mean "love"). There are some that believe it marks the celebration of Zeus and Hera's marriage too! I'm telling you, whatever you believe the origin of something is, the Greeks will say they got there first...


Enough of the history, let's talk real life. For the Greek couples on Valentines day it's probably more like this: The man will walk home from a long day's work at the restaurant and ask his wife when dinner is ready. She will ask him flat out where her flowers are. This will not go down well as the man will think it's enough that he works all day providing for the family and she wants bloody flowers too?! 

Or if the wife is really lucky, her man will have gone hunting and skinned a hare especially for her (to cook). 

As for the singletons, don't think they have it any easier. Oh no. As if there isn't enough pressure from family pushing them to find a spouse every day since they were 5, they now have added pressure from the rest of the world reminding them to do the very same thing on this day. You would think the family would at least take this day off from nagging as it is sensitive enough, but no, Greeks being the crafty people they are will use this as leverage to further pressurise and wear them down into submission to be introduced to that creepy weirdo they keep talking about...


OK, ok, so it's not all doom and gloom... The Greeks are extremely romantic and chivalrous when they want to be - I repeat, when they want to be. Greeks are stubborn people and don't like to be told when to do something, that includes being mushy! They do it when they want to and very well I might add! 

P.S. If you don't have a Valentine, don't sweat it. Get down and dirty with that feta kai psomi...