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EveryCheese

Monday

Shiva's fasting day for many Hindus, when paneer and milk carry the one meal, and the day of the Meatless Monday habit.

Monday is a day of light eating in two quite different traditions. For many Hindus it is Somvar, the day of Shiva and the moon, kept with a fast that often allows milk foods. In parts of the English-speaking world, a public campaign has made Monday the day to leave meat out, and cheese is what most cooks reach for instead. Both customs turn the first day of the week into a dairy day.

Somvar fasting and paneer

Devotees who keep a Monday fast, especially through the month of Shravan, usually eat once, in the evening, and avoid grains, onion and garlic. Milk is offered at the Shiva lingam, and milk foods are widely seen as pure, so many fasting kitchens make a dish of fresh paneer with rock salt, cumin and black pepper, or eat fruit with curd. Some families keep paneer out of the fast, so the custom differs from home to home. In Bengal and Odisha, a sweet of chhena may close the meal.

Meatless Monday

The idea of a meatless day began in the world wars, when governments asked households to save meat, and the Monday campaign was revived in 2003. Restaurants and school canteens that take it up often turn to cheese: macaroni cheese, cauliflower cheese, halloumi grilled with vegetables, paneer curries and cheese-filled pasta. The habit has spread to many countries and is kept as a reminder rather than a rule.

Traditions

  • Somvar vrat: A Monday fast for Shiva, often broken with milk foods.
  • Shravan Mondays: The Mondays of the monsoon month, the most widely kept.
  • Meatless Monday: A weekly campaign to leave meat out, revived in 2003.

The cheeses

PaneerAllowed in many Monday fasts, cooked with rock salt and cumin.ChhenaFresh curd for the fasting sweets of eastern India.HalloumiA firm grilling cheese for meatless Monday plates.

Sources and further reading

About this page

Written by the EveryCheese desk with AI assistance. Customs differ by community and family, and are described here as tradition, not instruction. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

The weekly digest

Every Monday: seven cheeses you may not know, the cheese days of the week ahead, and one dish explained step by step.