Even if you don't celebrate Lent,what food would you give up

I was thinking about this and also saw it on the site Sal Monilla provided a link to.Since during Lent you are supposed to give up something you enjoy,what one food or beverage would be most difficult for you?Right now for me it would be pop.

Taking one of my favorite polkas, "In Heaven There Is No Beer," a step further, if I had to choose between giving up beef and suffering eternal damnation, I would reserve my spot on the flaming escalator early.[/code]

Taking one of my favorite polkas, "In Heaven There Is No Beer," a step further, if I had to choose between giving up beef and suffering eternal damnation, I would reserve my spot on the flaming escalator early.

I could also see giving up beef. Not sure what it has to do with the polka, though.

I always thought the proper phrase was "to observe Lent", not "to celebrate Lent." At least in Catholic tradition, it's a solemn period of fasting and spiritual spring-cleaning, no?

The celebration comes with the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, though the fasting ends on Holy Saturday.

Antonius

1. To extol or honor in a solemn manner; as, to celebrate the
name of the Most High.

2. To honor by solemn rites, by ceremonies of joy and
respect, or by refraining from ordinary business; to
observe duly; to keep; as, to celebrate a birthday.

3. To perform or participate in, as a sacrament or solemn
rite; to solemnize; to perform with appropriate rites; as,
to celebrate a marriage.


i do think celebrate doesn't usually connote the activities associated with lent, but as a word it seems to work fine.

So I opted for the wrong word.I'm a bad ex Catholic.Sister Mary will make me write mea culpa 100 times on the chalkboard.

H:

It's hardly a big deal; it just sounded very odd to me and I commented in a way that was not intended to be obnoxious. Sorry if it sounded otherwise.

G:

It remains that traditionally and commonly the term used in English in this regard has been 'observe' rather than 'celebrate' -- indeed, at least in my long but perhaps excessively bookish life, I've never seen any regular use of the phrase "celebrate Lent" nor do I know a parallel rendering in any of the other languages I know.* And while it is true that one 'celebrates' mass, even if it be a funeral mass (for communion is always a celebration), what one does in observing the tradition of fasting is by no normal use of the word a celebration, though definition 2 sited above seems to allow for such usage.

Just to belabour further a very minor point, the definitions of 'celebrate' and 'observe' in my trusty Oxford dictionary, as Molto Mario might say, the undisputed king of English lexicographical resources, offers definitions which clearly better conform with the traditional usage:

celebrate: 1. Perform publicly and duly (religious ceremony), officiate at (Eucharist); observe (festival), honour, with rites, festivities, etc.; praise widely; (in p.p.) widely known...

observe: 1. Keep, follow, adhere to, perform duly, (law, command, appointed time, method, principle, silence, rite, anniversary, etc.)...

Now excuse me while I observe 'Miller Time'.



A

*Of course, I cannot and do not claim that the phrase 'celebrate Lent' is not used somewhere in some English-speaking community. I get out so little these days, perhaps that's what most folks do now with Lent.

A:

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,500 for "celebrate lent". (0.05 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 791 for "observe lent". (0.14 seconds)



of course, to be fair:

Results 1 - 10 of about 306,000 for celebrate lent. (0.07 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 400,000 for observe lent. (0.04 seconds)

I agree that in common usage observe is perhaps a better word. My excerpts came from the 1913 edition of webster's, perhaps not the most up-to-date source...

-ed

H&G:

O saeclum insapiens et infacetum! (Catullus)
Oh what a witless world, a tasteless time...

I googlised or googlified or googleated and now I am very glad I added the little footnote to my previous post: I don't get out enough and it appears that many of the people who live around me are indeed "celebrating Lent." I suppose I'm not really all that surprised, since the people that run the Church(-es) have all been trying to make religion more of a fun experience than it was when I grew up while the Inquisition was still in force.* So then, I must thank you both for helping to modernise my passive knowledge of colloquial American English, though I will steadfastly continue to observe and not celebrate Lent.

For what it's worth, parallel Googelierung with the German terms shows that the only fasting that gets paired much with celebration is the end of Ramadan!

***

gleam wrote:I agree that in common usage observe is perhaps a better word. My excerpts came from the 1913 edition of webster's, perhaps not the most up-to-date source...

Perhaps outdated, definitely colonial...

***

H:

I do generally observe Lenten fasting in some way. In the past I've tried to do a fairly full-blown Orthodox-like fast (no animal products whatsoever on most days) but that was a wee bit onerous. In general, I have sort of followed the Medieval Roman Catholic pattern of fasting which is strict (no meat, no dairy) for the 40 days but note that there is no fasting on the Sundays! But as I get older, I grow ever more decadent. This year I might follow the Medieval Roman fasting rules or I might just give up tripe and eye-tacos.

*Zum Beispiel: How to Celebrate Lent!

A

Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for spring which comes from the verb to lengthen. So, you could say, here at LTHforum, we celebrate lent or the longer days of spring. On a spiritual note, we keep lent which is another way of saying we observe lent. I'm going to fast from negative thinking and feast on the good and true!

I was thinking about giving up empty promises......

I had an ex with whom, for support, I joined in her abstinence of meat on Fridays. In a seafood-rich town, it hardly came as any kind of penance....

But, after this Mardi Gras, I'm anticipating serious beer saturation, so I may give it up to expedite my long-anticipated move to Chicago.

I think I would give up the Moto vegetable globe. That's about it for me.

nr706 wrote:

Taking one of my favorite polkas, "In Heaven There Is No Beer," a step further, if I had to choose between giving up beef and suffering eternal damnation, I would reserve my spot on the flaming escalator early.

I could also see giving up beef. Not sure what it has to do with the polka, though.

Actually, I was saying I couldn't give up beef, FWIW. Now that I reread it, I'll certainly cop to my lack of brevity and corresponding lack of clarity.

The polka reference is "In heaven, there is no beer / That's why we drink it here" -- so I choose to enjoy my beef here as well. And if that's enough to get me sent to hell, I get to go having enjoyed some mighty fine beef.

I first have to note that I'm ethinically Jewish, but religiously null. I tell people I'm beyond belief.

Probably the hardest food for me to give up would be peanut butter. There's always a big tub on the kitchen table for breakfast, lunch, snacks, or just a spoon grabbed from the drawer. I've tried to convince MrsF that we should at least be eating a natural variety with real bits of peanut, but the family is addicted to that sweetened homogenized ambrosia that is Skippy.

Chocolate? Too important for mental health to give up.
Red meat? Don't eat enough to make a difference.
Fast food? I eat less of it than I used to when I worked outside of the house. I crave it occasionally, but frankly hummos from Pita Inn would be harder to give up than, say, McD's fries.

gleam wrote:


I agree that in common usage observe is perhaps a better word. My excerpts came from the 1913 edition of webster's, perhaps not the most up-to-date source...

-ed

I agree with the more common usage of "observe" . . . if for no other reason that it is what I typically do: watch other people give up things for Lent while I eat whatever I please.

Bob S. wrote:Actually, I was saying I couldn't give up beef, FWIW. Now that I reread it, I'll certainly cop to my lack of brevity and corresponding lack of clarity.

The polka reference is "In heaven, there is no beer / That's why we drink it here" -- so I choose to enjoy my beef here as well. And if that's enough to get me sent to hell, I get to go having enjoyed some mighty fine beef.

It was my mis-read, sorry. But I could still give up beef and live only on salmon, tuna, lamb and duck ... and maybe lobster ... oh, and, yeah, ostrich, oysters, and the occasional pig product ... but I draw the line at brisket (although those rib tips at Hecky's last week were pretty good).

Kman wrote:if for no other reason that it is what I typically do: watch other people give up things for Lent while I eat whatever I please.

I find giving up something for Lent an interesting lesson in self-discipline and postponing fulfillment. I am more culturally Catholic, than Catholic-Catholic. I never gave up anything for Lent in a serious vein until 5 years ago. Oh sure on Saturday morning religious school classes, I would vow to give up chocolate, then probably ate some within 72 hours.

My attitude toward 'giving up' for Lent changed over idle lunch conversation with a friend and her home-from-school-sick son. We decided to give up Coca-Cola because it was something we liked and drank regularly. I am certain this was just a muse, something we'd never follow through except we had a little problem: her son as a witness. He told his brothers who then in turn told my nieces, they all watched us like hawks for the next 40 days. They even tried to trick us into breaking our 40-day fast by 'accidentally' offering us Cokes. When it concluded, not only did I drink substantially less Coca-Cola, I learned I was more disciplined than I gave myself credit for.

One of my best friends growing up is married to a theologian. I learned from him, and since observed others do the same, you do not necessarily have to give up anything for Lent. You may choose instead to do extraordinary activities during this period, for instance: go to Church every day or volunteer at a homeless shelter. Actually, I think extending yourself is more beneficial to your community than, say, giving up chocolate.

Cathy2 wrote: You may choose instead to do extraordinary activities during this period, for instance: go to Church every day or volunteer at a homeless shelter. Actually, I think extending yourself is more beneficial to your community than, say, giving up chocolate.

For every day of Lent my mother, truly an "old-school" Catholic, writes a letter to someone she hasn't been in contact with for many years. She started doing this probably ten years ago, after witnessing the ridiculous sneaky ways my brothers and I used to try to get around giving up something for Lent (the classic being "I'm giving up lima beans"). She still abstains from meat on both Wednesdays and Fridays (family tradition, I suppose), eats lightly throughout the day, and tries to give up some food item she enjoys, but the letters have become the center of her observance/celebration of Lent. She's made some wonderful reconnections with old friends. A few years back, one of the letters reached the very-recently widowed wife of an old friend she hadn't known had passed; the woman later told her that reading the letter, filled with happy old memories, had meant a lot to her.

After witnessing the success of her letter-writing campaign, I'm cautiously going to attempt something similar this year. I will also, of course, continue my tradition of giving up something I hate, namely crab cakes and/or Kool-Aid.

Having been raised Protestant, meatless Fridays and lent were not in my routine, but I can see a lot of value in both. As C2 mentioned, just giving up Coke for a while teaches discipline, and foregoing a favorite consumable is a way to make one more "conscious" of food choices, and I think that's a good thing (hey, those 3 months in Weight Watchers really paid off for me!).

Clearly, if I were in the mood for such ritual personal sacrifice, I would probably forego the liquid trinity of whisky, beer and wine.

Hammond

Being raised Roman Catholic, I always gave up some sort of food, beverage, swearing, etc. Could not think of anything last year (well, I COULD, but...) a co-worker suggested the elevator. Of course, depending where you work, this might or might not be a good idea. When I worked downtwon, no way way was I going up 26 flights of stairs but the third floor where I worked until recently was a good idea, considering the way I huffed and puffed up on day 1 through 20....

Something that has caused me great agony in the past, basically pizza, pizza & pizza.

HI,

Off Coke until Easter. While I thought about giving up lunches out, that was too painful to give up and one I would break. I am going to add two exercise classes, the ones that are good for me though I don't exactly like them.

After the discussion on panhandlers last week, I will look into organizing an outreach dinner at Inspiration Cafe or similar.

Regards,

Last year I gave up all (significant sources of) caffeine - it made 5am crew practices quite difficult - not to mention the rest of the day - but I managed to power through, with not a drop of caffeine. I could probably do it again this year with much less effort, so I'm moving on.

This year I am considering sweets in general, or maybe stand-alone sweets (as in not part of a meal)

I am giving up the one thing I love more than anything though - the snooze button.

I understand from some of my Catholic friends that the Church is promoting a different way of "observing" or "celebrating" Lent. Instead of giving up something that is desirable, you do something that would help others.

jygach wrote:I understand from some of my Catholic friends that the Church is promoting a different way of "observing" or "celebrating" Lent. Instead of giving up something that is desirable, you do something that would help others

It is not an instead, it is more like an 'and/or,' which is really quite an expansion.

My going to extra exercise classes, which is something I don't especially like, is just as worthy as giving up chocolate. Giving up sodapop in the past has lead me to drink less overall, which is good for me ultimately. If after 40 days I continue taking the classes I don't like, then all the better. Years ago, I gave up McDonalds for Lent, which helped brake a habit. I still go to McD's, just not as often.

Regards,

I'm giving up something that will hurt: LTH forum.

See ya all in forty days. I'll miss you.

-ramon

... couldn't ... make ... it ....

-ramon

I've decided to give up sobriety. It's not what it's cracked up to be.

Ramon wrote:I'm giving up something that will hurt: LTH forum.

See ya all in forty days. I'll miss you.

That's akin to abstaining from lunch-out, I just can't do it!

Regards,

I am giving up being a slug. I am going to attempt some form of exercise every day. Today I did 25 min. on the elyptical.

Antonious-When you went on you tangent about "observing" Lent, where was that coming from? The original post said nothing about observing or celebrating anything. Did someone alter the original post?

If I gave up a food, it would be ice cream fo' sure! I could eat it all day long!