Lenten thought

I feel a bit ambushed by Lent.  Actually I feel a bit ambushed by the year so far.  I don't have any ideas or plans for what to give up.  Even if you take away the religious aspect I think it is extremely healthy on a mental and emotional level to show self discipline and self control.

I love medieval history, and in the Middle Ages Lent was a very trying time for the housewife.  There was still the household to be fed.  It was a time of year when there wasn't that much to go round as you were eating up last year's harvest and it was probably fine but you had to keep an eye on things.  And then for forty days you had to juggle a list of what you could and couldn't eat.  Housewives were advised to order in their salted fish well in advance as the price rose when it got to Lent itself.  The nobles were also ordering in vast quantities of almonds and currants but the average housewife was looking at forty days of salt fish, no eggs, no milk, no cheese and no butter.  Fresh greens were very thin on the ground.  It must have been a challenge.

If you look at the household books and accounts that survive from that time, the richest used almonds and ground them, soaked them in water and then pressed them to extract almond milk.  They used spices, wine and a lot of ingenuity, and it still must have been a challenge.  Those lower down the social scale must have been unimpressed by forty days of cheap salt fish that needed to be seriously soaked before eating.

Fortunately or otherwise, the housewife would have been facing this on a smaller scale throughout the year - meat and any meat products was not to be eaten on Wednesday, Friday or Saturday.

It does beg the question how much this had to do with religion.  I get the impression that a large amount of time and energy was put into devising the rules, and then a much greater amount of time and energy was immediately applied looking for loopholes.  Barnacle geese were 'fish' at the table as they were supposed to hatch from barnacles, as were porpoise and seal, and beaver's tails, but not the rest of the beaver.  I think it says a lot more about man than God.

As ever, I shall try and find something to do for Lent, an active sacrifice (started late) and I shall see what I can think of for self discipline. In the Middle Ages, fasting (or eating less) for your physical health didn't count, only fasting for faith.  I shall think about the faith.