Clean Monday
Clean Monday is a public holiday in Greece and Cyprus, where it is celebrated with outdoor excursions, the consumption of shellfish and other fasting food, a special kind of azyme bread, baked only on that day, named "lagana" () and the widespread custom of flying kites. Eating meat, eggs and dairy products is traditionally forbidden to Orthodox Christians throughout Lent, with fish being eaten only on major feast days, but shellfish is permitted in European denominations. This has created the tradition of eating elaborate dishes based on seafood (shellfish, molluscs, fish roe etc.). Traditionally, it is considered to mark the beginning of the spring season, a notion which was used symbolically in Ivan Bunin's critically acclaimed story, "Pure Monday".
Chinese cuisine in Jewish culture in the United States
Chinese food allowed Jews to transition from strict kosher to incorporating non-kosher foods into their diets. Chinese cuisine is "unusually well suited to Jewish tastes because, unlike virtually any other cuisine available in America, traditional Chinese cooking does not use any milk products whatsoever." While most first-generation Jews living in America strictly practiced kashrut at all times, many second-generation Jews remained strict in their home observance but became more flexible in the foods they ate outside the home. The nature of Chinese food allowed them to rationalize this decision, as it is "disguised through a process of cutting, chopping and mincing. Pork, shrimp, lobster, and other so-called dietary abominations are no longer viewed in their more natural states." This process of cutting, chopping, and mincing, referred to as "ko p'eng—'to cut and cook'" in ancient Chinese texts, made the ingredients invisible and thus "safe treyf". For instance, pork was hidden and wrapped in wontons that looked similar to Jewish kreplach (dumplings). Ultimately this gave way to many US-born Jews rejecting kashrut altogether as "impractical and anachronistic". Breaking the rules of kashrut by eating Chinese food allowed the younger generation to assert their independence and it further established a "cosmopolitan spirit".