This period includes Passiontide and Holy Week, and it comes immediately after Carnival.
In one tradition, this observance involves people making dolls of a woman with no ears or mouth, whose seven feet are broken off one-by-one; they also make a special flatbread called lagana. Part of this period sees statues and crosses covered up with purple veils. Clean Monday is the beginning of the Orthodox "Great" version of this observance, which in Latin is called (*) Quadragesima. The day before this period's beginning often involves eating pancakes. On this period's first day, a priest says "dust you are, and to dust you will return" while drawing crosses of ash on its observers' foreheads. This period includes Passiontide and Holy Week, and it comes immediately after Carnival. For 10 points, name this forty-day long Christian season of fasting before Easter.
In one tradition, this observance involves people making dolls of a woman with no ears or mouth, whose seven feet are broken off one-by-one; they also make a special flatbread called lagana.
Lent [accept Great Lent; accept Quadragesima until it is read; accept Clean Monday or Kathara Deftera on the first sentence] 