Yes Yes YES This Day Has Finally Come

Today it's Tsiknopemti 

Great name right? You are wondering what the hell that means? All i can say is that i guarantee that by reading that post you gonna love this day too except if you are vegans. I don't know if any other countries have a similar day like this or even if that day is today too as it is connected with religion but all i can say is that because as a nation we tend to take something small and turn it into something big ( either it is a good or a bad thing) we ''enforced the Greek way'' in that particular day because

WE LOVE FOOD AND THIS DAY IS DEDICATED TO FOOD

Now that i have your attention let's learn a bit about the history of this day, if it has any importance at all and what exactly is gonna happen today across Greece and inside our bellies, the outcome believe me is magical!

Name 

Although you may have herd it as Fat Thursday too in English the more accurate name is Tsiktopemti. in Greek it is called Τσικνοπέμπτη and literally if we want to translate that word, it means ''Thursday of the Smoke or Grilled Meat''. 

History & Meaning

Tsiknopemti is basically a traditional celebration of Christian Orthodoxy that marks the start of the long fasting that gonna end up at Easter. The reason it isn't happening Friday or Wednesday is because those days are considered fasting days even though not everyone follows that logic but well tradition is tradition and religion is religion. Also, it's the last day we ''eat meat'' and after that day for someone who want to follow the big fasting period of 40 days, he still has one week (11 days to be precise) before the big fasting day that's called Clean Monday. In those 11 days meat is not allowed but you can eat dairy products like milk, yogurt etc etc but after Clean Monday oh god it's the best time to start being vegan. Finally it signatures the start day of Carnival so the following days there gonna be a a couple of carnival celebrations around!

So What Exactly Is Happening Today? 

Today my dear and beloved friends we eat meat, lots and lots of meat and usually we eat during evening and night as most people have to go to work. As i mentioned before we have the Greek Way of doing things and what i mean by that is that we celebrate everywhere, from ordering Souvlaki and meat during work with our co-workers to organizing whole barbecues in schools and colleges and trust me i have experienced every last bit of it!

As most people finish their work there are 2 ways to celebrate this day. The first one is just to take your family and friends and go out in a tavern or restaurant to enjoy your meat. Note that it will be really hard to find a spot as every place is crowded with people! There are even special events,occasions and initiatives that people, organizations or even mayors organize at which outside at parks or squares a real grill party starts with tons and tons of meat, music and dancing.

The other option is to gather at home with your family and friends, make the preparations by yourself and enjoy your meat and whatever else you gonna make or buy.That is exactly what i intend to do today, it's like a tradition inside a tradition this whole thing that we follow and since i can remember myself, my family, grandparents,uncles and cousins gathered and we eat together and who knows if we later want something extra then it's time for a meetup with friends for either eating again :P or just going out to have some fun!

Literally this day if you go out of your house everywhere you gonna see someone grilling and you gonna definitely smell the smoked-grilled meat or sausage. Even if you have no idea what this is about the whole atmosphere will lead you into try some meat and because we are too cool if we see any tourist around we might treat him something ;)

Let me know what do you think about this day and see you all again tomorrow with some pics from my festive table!

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