Public holidays · 2026
Green Monday falls on Monday, February 23, 2026 in Greece in 2026.
A public holiday across Greece: most employees have the day off.
In 2026 it falls on a Monday, a working day.
The date changes from year to year.
Saturday and Sunday · A public holiday does not always close every business. Essential services, shops and some industries keep working, and pay rules differ by country and contract.
Green Monday is the public holiday known in Greek as Kathara Deftera, Clean Monday, in Greece and Cyprus. It is the first day of Great Lent in the Orthodox Church and ends the pre-Lenten carnival season, known in Greek as Apokries. The name is usually explained as a cleansing of body and spirit, and many households also give the house and kitchen a thorough clean. It is also called Pure Monday, and outside the Orthodox Church sometimes Ash Monday, by analogy with Ash Wednesday.
The day is known for outdoor family picnics and for flying kites, which Greeks often explain as a symbol of reaching toward the divine. The meal is a Lenten spread without meat, eggs or dairy: lagana, an unleavened flat bread baked only on this day, plus taramosalata, olives, beans, halva and shellfish or octopus. Observant Orthodox treat the day as a strict fast, and many others eat only simple fasting foods. In Cyprus the day is spent in much the same way, with open-air meals and kite flying on hillsides and by the sea.
Everywhere in Greece.
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Questions
A public holiday across Greece: most employees have the day off.
Monday, February 23, 2026.