Lenten Observances

Lent is a liturgical season that many Christians observe. In the Catholic Church Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts up to Easter Sunday, which is 46 days. Traditionally, it is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting. There are two common things that Catholics do during this particular liturgical season; abstain from eating meat on Fridays and giving something up. The purpose of not eating meat on Ash Wednesday and all of the Fridays during Lent, an observance called abstinence, is to honor the Passion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. Similarly the purpose of Lenten “giving up” is to not only abstain from our sin during Lent, but to root sin out of our lives forever. To many people nowadays Lent just means that we can’t eat meat on fridays and that we have to give something up.

Most people that I have come in contact with that observe these traditions give up some sort of food for Lent. However, many people who observe the Lenten tradition of “giving up” only do so six out of the seven days of the week. They allow themselves to indulge in whatever it is that they gave up every Sunday during Lent. But what most people don’t know about or don’t even consider is the option of doing something rather than giving something up. Promising to do something, whether it is to be nicer to your siblings or help out around the house, is a viable alternative to giving something up. Due to the fact that most people either don’t know or don’ t think about this other option, most people just reluctantly give up stuff.

After interviewing different people about Lent, here are some of the common things that people have given up:

Junk Food

Snacking

Chocolate

Coffee

Phone

Goldfish

Out of all of the people I interviewed about Lent, all of them said that they gave up something and none of them even brought up the idea of do something instead. My question was: do we really give up things for the right reason, or do we do it because the church told us too. Maybe it’s the fact that most of the people that I come in contact with during the day are high school age and aren’t spending time thinking about why we give things up. So despite the fact that many people do observe Lenten traditions, not many of them know the true meaning of Lent or why it is that we are supposed to give something up or do something.