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".
Vibrio vulnificus
Increasing seasonal temperatures and decreasing coastal salinity levels seem to favor a greater concentration of " Vibrio" within filter-feeding shellfish of the US Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico, especially oysters ("Crassostrea virginica"). Scientists have frequently demonstrated the presence of "V. vulnificus" in the gut of oysters and other shellfish and in the intestines of fish that inhabit oyster reefs. The vast majority of people who develop sepsis from "V. vulnificus" became ill after they ate raw oysters; most of these cases have been men.