Lent.

[dinosaur]

What are YOU giving up for lent?

[RandMuadDib]

christianity

[dinosaur]

christianity

Okkaayyyy but I expect you to be Christian after 40 days...

[RandMuadDib]

lol Touché

[Celdia]

Lint.

[philsov]

Red meat
Putting in at least 1.5 hours of work into my patch every day
Reading "The Great Divorce" by CS Lewis - I enjoy forcing myself to plow through and digest a random philosophy/theology book/text/thing each lent.  This time it's actually Christianity!  XD.  Was bought on a recommendation, but it's like... 150 pages and not small font, so 40 days to read it is nothing

Gettin' my ashes at noooooon.

~

Random background:  Although I was raised catholic, I'm currently about as secular as someone can be.  But Ash Wednesday and Lent is still a practice/ritual I like to be a part of. 

[Kokojo]

What is lent...?

[Eternal]

It's a time when you're supposed to sacrifice something in your life. I think it has to do with showing devotion to God, but I'm not certain of the details.

[MysticKnightFF5]

I gave up Eternal's dreams for lent...cuz...that's important to me...and stuff....

[philsov]

It's a time when you're supposed to sacrifice something in your life. I think it has to do with showing devotion to God, but I'm not certain of the details.

Less devotion to God, and more to gain a closer understanding on the nature of temptation (and sacrifice).  During Lent one is supposed to give up something (a lot of people like doing food nowadays, buncha softies) they enjoy eating/doing/etc and simply do without it.  More recently things have been adapted to include forcibly doing something positive as a replacement of simply doing without what is usually a negative.  Coworker of mine for example is giving up fried food and sweets for lent.  In my younger party days I gave up drugs (alcohol et al), but I'm at a different point in my life so giving up those things now is akin to me giving up "eating sticks of butter like they were apples"

Lent is forty days long, in parellel to the "temptation of christ" wherein Jesus wandered the desert for forty days and was continually tempted by Satan.  During this time, Catholics are supposed to repent (more than normal), fast, and otherwise prepare their body both physically and spiritually for the resurrection of Jesus, which is celebrated on Easter.  As per wikipedia:  "The three traditional practices to be taken up with renewed vigour during Lent are prayer (justice towards God), fasting (justice towards self), and almsgiving (justice towards neighbour)."  On Ash Wednesday and all fridays, non-fish meat is traditionally forbidden, arguably in order to bring the nobles onto the same levels as the commoners for a few days out of the year (humility is awesome, no?).  Used to be all meat and dairy, but like most things this practice, too, has become less rigid.  

If you're familiar with Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) or Brazil's Carnival, it's joined to this.  Because people are going through a period of fasting and withdrawing, they then go buck wild the night before and indulge in their sacrifice prior to it being forbidden.  

The ash used to annoint people's foreheads for Ash Wednesday is typically made from burning last year's palms from Palm Sunday.  The priest usually mutters either "thou are dust, and from dust you shall return" or "turn away from sin and be faithful."

PS - my favorite part about Easter is the fact that it's tied to the lunar cycle.  Easter occurs on the sunday, after the first full moon, after the spring equinox.

[Eternal]

Nice explanation. I knew Fat Tuesday was tied to it somehow, but I wasn't sure how.

Randomly, my birthday fell on Easter last year (or the year before). It was a good dinner.

[Kokojo]

What a waste of mentality...

[Eternal]

The concept is nice, though. Build willpower by giving something up you really enjoy.

[dinosaur]

What a waste of mentality...

<3  <3  <3

[GeneralStrife]

Beer

[Wiz]

pr0n

[Kokojo]

The concept is nice, though. Build willpower by giving something up you really enjoy.

Considering it's religion, it's mostly a sacrifice to increase faith. Still a waste.

[Mando]

IF I was still catholic. I would give up Dino for lent.

[Celdia]

*read philsov's ever-enlightening post*

I swear I learn more about religion on this board than I ever did in getting dragged to church as a child.

[philsov]

Considering it's religion, it's mostly a sacrifice to increase faith. Still a waste.

Doing good things for the wrong reasons... is still doing good things.  There is no way this sort of practice can be viewed as a waste.