Cheesefare Sunday (Bele poklade)
22 February 2026 · movable holiday — Forgive me! Now, snap at the egg on the string!
Cheesefare Sunday, known in Serbia as Bele poklade and in Bulgaria as Sirni zagovezni, is the Sunday before Great Lent begins for Orthodox Christians. It is also called Forgiveness Sunday. The name Bele (“white”) refers to the last week before the fast, when people eat dairy and eggs but no meat. In the evening, people ask one another for forgiveness: younger people kiss the hands of their elders and say “Forgive me!”, and the answer is “God forgive you!”. In many places bonfires are lit and people jump over the flames. A well-known game is “hamkane” (also “amkane”): a boiled egg is hung on a thread, set swinging, and players try to bite it without using their hands. The date moves each year because it depends on Easter, which the Orthodox Church calculates using the Julian calendar: the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox (21 March, Old Style). So Cheesefare Sunday can fall anywhere from mid-February to mid-March. In Serbia the holiday is called Bele poklade.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure of a laughing child made of bright dots and fine lines, like a constellation, leaping to catch an egg swinging on a thread
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