Cyprus was celebrating ‘Stinky Thursday’ today with songs, meat on the spit and plenty of drinking while schoolchildren played games.  Tsiknopempti or Stinky Thursday, which marks the beginning of the Carnival festivities, is also the beginning of the gradual weaning off meat and dairy in preparation for the 50-day lent period that leads to Easter Sunday.

Cypriots took advantage of the mild, mostly sunny spring day, and set up barbecues outside shops and offices, to mark the day, which traditionally ‘stinks the air’ from the smoke of charcoaled meat while children dressed in carnival costumes and played traditional games at schools.