Ash Wednesday started for me at 10 a.m. when I received a friendly reminder from my mother not to eat meat and have my neighborhood priest slap some ashes made from burned palms on my forehead.
Now the last time I went to church to celebrate the Catholic season Lent was when I was attending a Catholic middle school, where an announcement was made the week before to the season to remind people to give something up. However as an adult I’ve noticed that many people no matter their religious background will end their try to kick a bad habit, stop eating a particular food, or deprive themselves of something that was normally a part of their routine to make their lives better.
However if a New Year’s resolution is the marathon you train for and never compete in, Lent can be compared to the 5K that you can pat yourself on the back for before diving into the indulgence that you left for the past five-and-a-half weeks. Now along the way you can expect hurdles like a friend drinking the coffee or coke you have longed for just to stay awake and rubbing their caffeinated joy in your face or when you try to make exceptions for yourself so you don’t feel as though you’ve given up.
Take for instance the whole no meat on Friday thing. I have had many discussions on whether white meat like chicken counts or pork the new white meat is an exception. Now, I am not too sure the Pope made a press release for this one because some of the sources are outdated but I am pretty sure you can’t eat both.
Overall the season has changed through the decades, and beyond just being a Catholic holiday it has come to be the forty days were some will chose to cut or add something to their lives with the intention to make it better.