The weekend went as per my previous announcement. I spent it in bed or on the couch, trying to get past this latest rampaging rhinovirus. I canceled two things I’d planned to do. One of them turned out to be fairly important in regard to the situation of one of my old friends, though no one had bothered to tell me that until after I’d decided I couldn’t go. Nevertheless, the theme of the weekend was Bad Cold, plus Bad Conscience.

Today is Shrove Monday, and tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday. The “shrove” refers to the sacrament of confession and absolution—getting shriven. One was (I suppose still is, in several communions) expected to go to confession and be shriven in preparation for the forty day fast of Lent.

In Norwegian they call it Fetetirsdag, which corresponds to the French Mardi Gras, or “Fat Tuesday.” That less spiritual-sounding name rises from the fact that all red meat was forbidden during the Lenten fast. It was considered a sin even to have animal fat in your house during that period. So people would feast on all the fat that was laying around. Fat-free diets were not fashionable (or safe) in those days, when food was harder to get than it is now. You didn’t just pitch something that could provide nutrition, especially late in the winter. If you couldn’t have it in the kitchen, you wanted to carry it around on your waist with you. It would help you get through Lent.

Pancakes were a popular food for using up the fat, which is why pancakes are traditionally associated with Shrove Tuesday. Sexual relations were also forbidden in Lent, which, I suppose, accounts for Mardi Gras and Carnivale.

In many churches people still fast for Lent. It’s rare, I think, for anyone to do a real, old-fashioned, no-meat-or-meat-products-at-all plus no sex Lent anymore, one where you actually drop a lot of weight, but many people give up some indulgence—chocolate or ice cream or booze.

Many Lutherans do it too, but that isn’t part of my pietist tradition. Also I’m afraid I wouldn’t hold out, and I’d have something new to feel guilty about.

Anyway, I already don’t drink, and I have no sex life. I’m way ahead of most Lenten fasters any day of the year. Maybe I should fast from fasting during Lent. It would be hard, but good for…

No.