We do enjoy indulging the day before the start of Lent. We don't get as crazy as we did when we were young, but we still enjoy the process of getting rid of the treats.
It is not mandatory to "give up" foods. One year, I enforced a daytime ban on unnecessary internet. Boy, did I get a lot done that year! By Easter, I had cut the mindless consumption of a lot of useless stuff.
Google has this boring doodle today:
Dood! With the amazing graphical opportunities that Mardi Gras presents, this is the best you can do?
Pathetic.
Good heavens - Google planned on 17 days of Doodles to fawn over those who worked hard and sacrificed to be the best in their sports. To interrupt that with a Doodle suggesting that their viewers work hard or sacrifice to be their best would be at odds of encouraging mindless consumption and lassitude. Otherwise their viewership would go out and participate in life, not provide advertising clicks and dollars.
ReplyDeleteleave it to Google to ignore anything (Judeo-Christian) religious or conservative...sigh...HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
ReplyDeleteI was in my local Krogers yesterday listening to the conversation between the clerk and the woman ahead of me when I realized that Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday were the same day this year. When my turn came, I commented on that to the clerk, who is a Bible-quoting (but pleasant) fundamentalist Protestant. She didn't know what Ash Wednesday was, nor Mardi Gras. Here, in the Protestant fortress of north-central Ohio, she had never heard of any Catholic or High Church rites or holidays.
ReplyDeleteHaving grown up in a relatively strong Catholic community (Greater Cleveland, West Side), the local businesses would promote Catholic holidays - Advent, Lent, and some of the better-known saints (St. Valentine, St. Patrick) and feast days (Assumption - HUGE in the Italian community). The local ethnic communities would produce and consume their traditional pastries and treats.
ReplyDeleteHere in SC, yesterday I saw a Friday Special, that had discounts on MEAT-based meals.
Unheard of. Fridays were always the day, during Lent, that featured fish-based meals. I still love going to Cleveland during Lent - my brother's church, Blessed Trinity, has a Lenten dinner that is to DIE FOR! Good grilled fish, grilled salmon, shrimp - a truly great meal.