The Triodion
The Triodion is the pre-Lenten liturgical period in the Greek Orthodox calendar, opening on 1 February 2026 — the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee — and running to Apokriatiki (Cheesefare Sunday) on 22 February, with Great Lent beginning on Clean Monday, 23 February.
The Triodion is the pre-Lenten period in the Greek Orthodox liturgical calendar, opening on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee and running through Cheesefare Sunday (Apokriatiki). In 2026 it opens on 1 February and closes on 22 February, with Clean Monday — the first day of Great Lent — falling on 23 February. Greek Orthodox Pascha falls on 12 April in 2026. The period takes its name from the liturgical book of three-stanza odes sung from this Sunday through Holy Saturday; its public form in Greece is the carnival cycle (Apokries).
The principal carnival cycles run in four cities. Patras, on the Peloponnesian coast, holds the largest carnival in Greece, with a grand procession of King Carnival on Apokriatiki Sunday. Athens holds the Plaka and Psyrri parades, smaller in scale. Naoussa in Macedonia carries the Boules and Janitsaroi tradition: costumed bands moving through the town in procession from Saturday morning. Xanthi in Thrace hosts a cycle that includes Pomak and Roma carnival traditions alongside the Greek Christian observance.
The sequence holds three Triodion Sundays: the Sunday of the Prodigal Son (8 February), Meatfare Sunday (15 February), and Cheesefare Sunday (Apokriatiki, 22 February). Tsiknopempti falls on 19 February, the Thursday when grilled-meat cooking marks the day across Greek cities. The Triodion opens on a date that varies each year according to the Pascha calculation.