Foodies

Lent and No-Meat Fridays

The Foodies' KitchenFebruary 24, 2012

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Lent, are the forty days’ fast preceding Easter, originally meant no more than the spring season. It’s been used from the Anglo-Saxon period to translate the more significant Latin term quadragesima (French carême, Italian quaresima, Spanish cuaresma), meaning the “forty days”, or more literally the “fortieth day”.

Fasting during Lent was more severe in ancient times than today. Socrates Scholasticus reports that in some places, all animal products were strictly forbidden, while others will permit fish, others permit fish and fowl, others prohibit fruit and eggs, and still others eat only bread. In some places, believers abstained from food for an entire day; others took only one meal each day, while others abstained from all food until 3 o’clock. In most places, however, the practice was to abstain from eating until the evening, when a small meal without vegetables or alcohol was eaten. In current times, during lent, you abstain to eat red meat every Friday until Easter.

So, to help you plan your meals during lent, here is a list of our lent-friendly dishes.