_________________________________________
Can you believe it's this time of year again?
In January, if you recall, I recommended we not make any kind of New Year's resolutions this year, but to wait until Lent - which is a much shorter span of time! Ha!
Well, now it's here!
Today is Mardi Gras (translated from the French as "Fat Tuesday") -- the last day to party down before the beginning of Lent!
As you may or may not know, Lent is a period of fasting, penance and alms-giving to the poor, to purge the soul and start anew.
But fasting doesn't just mean food! It can be anything we like to do --alcohol, tobacco, ten hours a day on the internet -- whatever.
And thus the question in conversation during this time of year -- "What did you give up for Lent?"
Ending with Easter Sunday, Lent is supposed to be forty days, right? Corresponding to the Christ's forty-days of fasting in the desert.
But now here's the fun part!
For some reason, Lent is always forty-six days, isn't it?
What?
Why?
Well, the HUGE dilemma is that in the Catholic religion, Sundays are always and always days of feast! No matter what!
And we cannot both fast and feast on the same days, can we? lol!
So the Vatican accommodated this clumsy mess simply by extending Lent to forty-six day -- skipping all the Sundays!
And therefore, THE TRUTH ABOUT LENT is that it's only SIX days a week! And on the seventh day, you can party down and get back to business!
(Dear God! If anyone in the Vatican reads this, I'm totally sure I'm going to hell! But I didn't make up the rules! You Cardinals and Bishops did that a long time ago! And I'd really like to say THANK YOU for the day off!)
Happy Mardi Gras! And good luck to all of us during Lent!
Good night!
Andrew
(who's going straight to hell!)
Hi Andrew!
ReplyDeleteI'm giving up partying. Mardi gras has been really crazy this year here in Rio, and I definitely need the 46 day rest!
You didn't tell us what you are giving up!
Angelina
I don't know yet, Angelina! In my time zone there's still a couple of hours before Lent begins -- so I still have a little more time to decide. Ha!
DeleteAcccording to news reports, you guys in Rio are the absolute and definitive definition of "party"! And I don't blame you at all for needing a rest! Ha!
Hope you had fun!
Andrew
Dahling Andrew,
ReplyDeleteThis convent-raised goddess absolutely cannot believe that we're supposed to get Sundays "off" during Lent!
Neither my mother nor the nuns ever mentioned such a delicious technicality and I have horrid memories of FORTY SIX days of no sweets, no tv, no allowance (that was a Bad year!)
Had the given me the option of six days on, one day off, I'm absolutely sure I would've stayed on the righteous path a lot longer!!
We're obviously going to hell together.
I'll bring the champagne.
Bliss-ings,
the goddess known as Jacqui
PS I shared this around my networks ... another Vatican secret out of the bag lol
But dearest Jacqueline....
DeleteWe have to consider that Champagne might be considered contraband in the netherworld, and there could very well be a bouncer at the gates!
Your childhood horrors in the convent is absolutely deserving of an entirely seperate blog! Ha! (I'm permanetly scarred by having been dragged into the Prado Museum in Madrid (at the age of six), and forced to look at Hieronymus Bosch's horrifying depictions of hell!) omg!
I'm thinking we should start a support group! Maybe call it "Victims of Lent",
or, "My Total Failure During the Lenten Season",
or, "How Lent Ate My Lunch"! Ha!
Bliss-ings upon you as well, Goddess Jacqui!
Andrew
Hey Drew. I gave up sleeping with three pillows, instead of just one.
ReplyDeleteP
Paul, you dumb ass! I WISH you had given up reading my blog!!!
DeleteGo to bed, with your one stupid pillow! And leave me alone.