Pure Monday

Liturgically, Pure Monday – and therefore Great Lent itself – begins the night before (Sunday), with a special service called Vespers of Forgiveness, which culminates in the Ceremony of Mutual Forgiveness, in which all present bow down to each other and ask for forgiveness. Thus, the faithful begin the Great Lent with a clean conscience, with forgiveness and with renewed Christian love. The whole first week of Great Lent is often called "Clean Week", and it is customary to go to confession during this week and clean the house thoroughly (or have it cleaned before the start of the fast).

The theme of Pure Monday is defined by the Old Testament reading designated to be read at the sixth hour on that day (Isaiah 1:1-20), which says in part:

Wash yourselves and you will be clean; Remove the evil ways from your souls before My eyes. stop doing evil; learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, consider the orphan and plead for the widow. Come therefore and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and though they are red like crimson, I will make them white like wool.

Clean Monday is a holiday in Greece and in Cyprus, where it is celebrated with outdoor excursions, the consumption of shellfish and other fasting foods, a special type of unleavened (unleavened) bread, baked only on this day, named "lagana" ( Greek: λαγάνα) and the widespread custom of flying kites. The consumption of meat, eggs and dairy products is traditionally prohibited for Christians throughout Lent, with fish only eaten on major feast days, but shellfish are permitted. This created the tradition of eating elaborate seafood dishes (shellfish, molluscs, fish eggs, etc.). Traditionally, it is considered to mark the beginning of the spring season, as evidenced by the sticheron of the Triodion of Lent, “The spring of Lent has come…”.

The joyful, spring-like atmosphere of Pure Monday may seem at odds with the spirit of repentance and self-control of Lent, but this seeming contradiction is a marked aspect of the Orthodox approach to fasting, in keeping with the lesson of the Gospel (Matthew 6:14-21) read the morning before, which warns:

When you fast, do not, like the hypocrites, have a sad face, for they disfigure their faces, so that they appear to be fasting to men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to fast, but to your Father who is in secret.

In this way, the Orthodox celebrate that “the spring of fasting has dawned, the flower of repentance has begun to open…”