What's this about? Who/What is Lent?

Are you trolling, or are you seriously too lazy to do a wikipedia search on your own?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent

Ugh...this is a practice I don't get. I hear this: "I'm going to identify something in my life that probably isn't good for me anyway, that if I had enough intestinal fortitude I'd give it up anyway, and I'll instead "give it up" for a brief period of time for some religious feel-good time." How does this *possibly* honor God? (I assume that is the purpose). Because, more often than not, it is an *extremely* self-indulgent action coupled with a lot of "whoa is meeeee....I gave up x and I miss it soooo much....I'm suffering so much loudly and publicly...look at meeeeee..."

What is the religious basis of this practice supposed to be?

Lent marks the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness before beginning his ministry. During this time, Jesus fasted, an act which most people interpret as the assertion of the spiritual over the physical. The practice of fasting has fallen out of fashion in Christianity in modern times, and was first replaced with giving up meat, and more recently with this somewhat watered-down version, wherein one gives up something instead of giving up food.

I assume everyone has heard what the pope is giving up for lent.
Or would it be more accurate to say,
"I assume everyone has heard that the pope is giving up for lent."

@Krellin - To expand on hecks, it isn't just about giving up something. It is properly called the Discipline of Lent. The idea is to give up something that has meaning to you personally. While I disagree in calling the current version "watered down" compared to giving up meat, both are watered down compared to what Christ did in the wilderness.

@hecks - Vegetarians already have given up meat. So for them, Lent would be easy. The idea is to give up something difficult and personal (and for those who don't know, you also aren't supposed to broadcast to the world what youare giving up). My 40 days is gonna be tough. I know it. But I have the discipline and will make it through.

As far as truly fasting for 40 days, that is physically dangerous for many and quite possibly deadly, so I'm glad while Christ calls us to take up our Cross and follow him, he doesn't demand that we die a physical death in the process. The Apostles did and Paul suffered greatly. We should be (and I am) thankful that our suffering is typically self-inflicted by our own actions and that his call to follow is for us to show his love to the world through our thoughts words and deads.

Ah, self-indulgence. Something krellin is an expert on. I have to disagree with you, though. Most people don't make a big song and dance about it, and those that do tend to be the sort of people who make a big song and dance about everything.

Personally, I think Lent happens to be one of the finest Christian traditions. It encourages you to make a lifestyle change, usually for the better, and helps give you strength to try it out for a significant period of time until you get used to it. Then, at the end of 40 days, if you much prefer the old way you can switch back without a smidgeon of guilt.

Hell, it make a lot more sense than pinning bits of candy to an orange with tooth picks and sticking a candle on top of it!

"Hell, it make a lot more sense than pinning bits of candy to an orange with tooth picks and sticking a candle on top of it! "

OK, I have to know more. Please! *Please!* Enlighten me, oct.

Christingle, Draug... Do you not have that in Yankyland?

@Draugnar (no "h")
"While I disagree in calling the current version "watered down" compared to giving up meat, both are watered down compared to what Christ did in the wilderness."

Yeah, I re-wrote that post to include the intermediate step of giving up meat. My original intent was to indicate that both are sort of a lesser version than a true fast would be. As I understand it, even the early Christian 40-day Lenten fast was not a complete fast, but rather a bread-and-water fast.

@hecks - OK. But even a bread and water fast is dangerous to someone like a diabetic for whom bread (a heavy carbohydrate) shoudln't be in their diet. I might try a food fast of some sort next year. These year, I am giving up three things, two of which I will likely return to but the third I hope to give up for good.

I'm a Secular Humanist who was raised Baptist. Since Lent isn't part of either of those traditions, I'm not giving up anything.

(Although if I were, I think a fast food fast would be a good idea. No McDonald's or takeout pizza.)

no hecks, I wasn't trolling, I just forgot about google, wikipedia etc for a sec :)
Funny you guys mention this though, I just finished an assignment where I had to make a (fake) school paper, part of it was about the Christians only holding on to their feasts and not to fasting :) That was about Carnival though, not sure if we´re talking about the same thing here :P

Oh, and to answer the question you asked: No, as soon as I realize something isn´t good for me, someone else or whatever, I give it up immediately, no need to wait for a special occasion in my opinion...

I'm giving up blowjobs and unpretentious wine for lent.

Your boyfriend won't be happy

........I've heard he likes unpretentious wine

That's going to be a hard one for you YJ.

"It encourages you to make a lifestyle change, usually for the better, and helps give you strength to try it out for a significant period of time until you get used to it. Then, at the end of 40 days, if you much prefer the old way you can switch back without a smidgeon of guilt."

Isn't that what I said? Most people find something that God would find offensive and give it up for 40 days and pretend like they've done something good.

As for the Biblical origin..it was Jesus in the wilderness fasting AND PRAYING for 40 days. He gave up *everything* in his life and devoted 40 days to His Father.

Lent is nothing like what Christ did. Again, to connect to another thread - the Cathloic Church has perverted another biblical teaching.

Personally, if you want to give up something bad for you, do it ANY time of the year, but I sincerely doubt God gives a hootin' holler about a 40 days without smoking, eating fatty foods, blowjobs, swearing or all the other bullshit that people give up that (in God's eyes) they shouldn't be doing anyway.

"Ah, self-indulgence. Something krellin is an expert on. I have to disagree with you, though. Most people don't make a big song and dance about it, and those that do tend to be the sort of people who make a big song and dance about everything."

Yes - I'm probably a self-indulgent shmutz. But I dont attribute my bad behavior, or attempts to give up bad things, to short-term God-Holiday's. As for people making a song-and-dance about it...apparently you live in a different society than I do, because I *only* know about Lent every year because that's when the normally God-silent Catholics crawl out of the woodwork and start making public statements about what they are giving up. To which I roll my eyes, particularly since they usually don't make it 40 days, and they sure as hell don't spend 40 days focused on God, as the example of Christ demonstrated.

Apparantly there's 3 traditional practices that most people forget. The history of this kind of thing is pretty fascinating.

From WIkipedia:
The three traditional practices to be taken up with renewed vigour during Lent are prayer (justice towards God), fasting (justice towards self), and almsgiving (justice towards neighbour). Today, some people give up a vice of theirs, add something that will bring them closer to God, and often give the time or money spent doing that to charitable purposes or organizations.

Also I forgot to mention that traditionally people just gave something up permenantly. None of this 40 days of giving something up. As well as there being no meat everyday not just on Fridays.

I'm giving up Lent for Lent.

@ krellin

Apparently we do live in very different societies.

Not entirely sure why you think comparisoms with Christ in the desert is important. Yup, he gave up a lot more. But he also had the Devil offering him loads of cool stuff, so swings and roundabouts. I would happily give up nearly everything for a few weeks and live in a tent if I could count on Old Harry popping round for tea a few times and giving me a yacht, sportscar, lifetime supply of steak dinners, and more gold than I could spend if a lifetime. Alas, old Jesus and myself are in very different situations.

Seriosuly, though, there's a certain magic about times such as lent and new year that makes giving things up a whole lot easier. Make use of it, and make you life closer to how you want it to be. I can't see this being anything but a positive thing.

Krellin gave up sobriety for Lent. :-)

"Seriosuly, though, there's a certain magic about times such as lent and new year that makes giving things up a whole lot easier. Make use of it, and make you life closer to how you want it to be. I can't see this being anything but a positive thing."

Very nicely said.

Well with all the sacramental wine I don't blame him.

If he is Baptist, they don't use wine. Most Baptist churches use "the fruit of the vine" which is what Biblical wine means. The term in the Bible can refer to unfermented grape juica or fermented, what we call wine.

And let us all not forget Catholicism's greatest contribution to the world: *beer*!