Monday, February 16/2026

Courtesy BBC

Season of fasting coming up, for those who observe. Between lunar, Gregorian and Julian calendars it takes some sorting. Once had a student ask if there were any way of predicting when Easter would be. Before I had my mouth in gear a not particularly academic classmate said ‘Yes, it’s the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox’. And that’s pretty well it for the western Christian church.

There are western Christians in Cyprus. A few Roman Catholics as well as Christians of various denominations among the ex-pat contingent. But most Cypriot Christians, living almost entirely in the South, are Eastern Orthodox. The Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar which occasionally produces a date for Easter that matches the western - but usually doesn’t. (Christmas, on the other hand, is celebrated in Cyprus and Greece on December 25,  same as in the west, but this is not true in all Orthodox countries. Don’t ask). 

This year Lent begins next Monday, February 23, for the Orthodox in Cyprus. The Orthodox don’t do Ash Wednesday. They start Lent with Clean (or Green) Monday. Considerably less penitential than Ash Wednesday. No meat, but the tradition is to eat seafood and salads, often at outdoor picnics.

In Muslim countries, including North Cyprus, the penitential season is Ramadan, starting this year, tentatively, on Wednesday February 18. The date is based on the lunar year, and, in fact, the tentative bit is down to the tradition that Ramadan begins with the first sighting of the crescent moon. Used to be by the naked eye, and still is in some places, but TRNC - like Türkiye - now relies on astronomical calculations. Answering the question of what happens if the skies are heavily overcast for several days.

Thus the beginning of Ramadan is, coincidentally, on Ash Wednesday.