Tsiknopempti

Eastern is approaching very fast and with Eastern, in the Catholic Church and especially in Greece, the time of fasting also starts. Beginning on Ash Monday, for 40 days no one will eat any meat in Greece. The beginning of the fasting time and the beginning of the carnival as well, is marked by Tsiknopempti, a celebration, where everywhere meat is cooked and people eat meat in all of Greece. Sounds great, isn`t it? And it is. But what is this mostly unknown celebration?

As already mentioned, Tsiknopempti marks the beginning of carnival. The carnival in Greece goes over 3 weeks, with Tsiknopempti being on the Thursday of the second week. It is the first day people walk around masked and start actually celebrating carnival. Therefore it technically is a part of the carnival, not of the fasting time.

But on the other side, Tsiknopempti always takes place 11 days before Ash Monday, the beginning of the fasting time. Tsiknopempti, which means literally “The Thursday of the smoke of grilled meat” is, as already mentioned, the day, where all over Greece, people grill a lot of meat, for example the famous dish souvlaki, and eat it. Here in Nenita for example, school finished earlier, and the parents made souvlaki for the whole school and teachers. Thus, Tsiknopempti, which is also referred to as “Fat Thursday” is a day fully in the sign of eating meat. It therefore represents also a farewell of meat for the fasting time-even if this starts 11 days later. This makes Tsiknopempti a part of Easter celebrations as well.

And as it should be on a “Fat Thursday”, also a lot of sweets are eaten on Tsiknopempti. All this makes Tsiknopempti one of the most enjoyable greek celebrations. So if you like souvlaki and greek sweets, come to Cyprus or Greece on Tsiknopempti and enjoy!