Cheese Sunday
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In the Eastern Church, particularly in northern Greece and western Macedonia, it has been the custom to keep the Last Sunday before Lent – successively Quinquagesima and the Last Sunday after the Epiphany in the Western Church – as “Cheese Sunday,” since it is the last occasion before Lent when cheese may be consumed. Cheese Sunday was the occasion of uninhibited behavior, including dances and masquerades. The custom may have been derived from the custom of eating cheese during the Jewish Festival of the Giving of the Torah (Shavout), based on a misreading of Gabnumin (“multi-peaked”) in Psalm 68:15 in reference to the mountain on which the Torah was given, as Gevinah (“cheese”). It is also customary to light bonfires, which may be connected with the pre-Christian festival of Beltane. A parallel within Christianity occurs in Landbeck, near Innsbruck, where “Cheese Sunday” is held on the First Sunday of Lent and also involves the lighting of bonfires. One commentator reports that in 1885 in Kythnos, a Greek city particularly noted for its fine cheese, the children went from house to house with an image covered with grass which they called Macaroni, because he had come to be given some, and they were accordingly given macaroni by the householders. The same reporter states that it was considered unlucky to sneeze on Cheese Sunday and anyone who did was required to tear off a small piece of his clothing. Another custom was to hang the last egg remaining from the Cheese Sunday meal by means of a string from the ceiling, and the guests would each knock it with their head to get it swinging and then try to get it in their mouth. In the evening it was customary for young people to visit their elders to ask forgiveness from their wrongdoings and to receive a blessing. |
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