Last Sunday's Class

Last Sundayour discussion centered around the coming of the Lenten season. In particular we focused on the idea of fasting and how the concept of fasting has changed in the Church. During the Middle Ages, fasting was expected every day during Lent. Meat and other animal products were forbidden - which included eggs and lard. So it made sense that the weeek leading up to Lent was a time to clean out the fridge (I know, I know - they didn't have refrigerators). The day before Lent is called Pancake Day in England (gotta use up the eggs!) and Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) in a lot of locations. New Orleans throws a big Mardi Gras Carnival. Carnival?

The word carnival has Latin roots - either "carnem" or "caro" for meat and either "levare" for lighten or "vale" for farewell. Either way, it means no meat for a while.

Lent lasts forty days, so we also talked about the symbolism of the number 40 and thought of examples from the bible.