Today is Ash Wednesday, a religious observance that marks the beginning of Lent - a forty day period of fasting leading up to the Easter season. On this day, people of the Catholic faith abstain from eating meat, as they do on some other religious days such as Good Friday. Years ago, it was very common for Catholics to refrain from eating meat every Friday. Fish was a very popular food on Fridays. However, this practice of giving up meat on Friday is not as common anymore. Hundreds of years ago, when our population consisted of a high proportion of Catholics, there were 153 days a year when Catholics had to restrain from eating meat. That's over 1/3 of the entire year, and this created a high demand for fish. Fish was the preferred protein of choice on these days.
Lent is a period of fasting, and during Lent, many Catholics choose to make a small sacrifice. These sacrifices often involve giving up a certain food, such as sweets or junk food. Popular choices to give up are chocolate, candy, cake, chips, pop, and fast food. This is all in preparation of the upcoming Easter season, where there is sure to be a great feast!
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