Listed: Fasting

I attended the same small private school K-12 grade.  It was not Catholic so Lent was not something I ever learned about.  In fact, I can distinctly remember when I first learned about it.  One Wednesday during my freshmen year at UT, I was walking to class and noticed that some girl clearly did not look in the mirror when she rolled out of bed because she had a dark smeared gray something or another across her forehead. As seen on Joe Biden here:

I remember thinking that was funny but that’s about it.  Then I made my way to the Pi Phi house for Mexican lunch and my friends that are twins had the same smudged substance on their foreheads!  Completely ignorant, I decided to let them know about the mess they had on their faces.  They both looked at me like I had told them I believe in aliens.  “Uhh, its Ash Wednesday???”  I think I tried to play it cool as any new freshman would and then immediately researched this “Ash Wednesday” when I got to my computer.  Pretty classic story for someone that grew up in a very small bubble.  So to get things straight:

Lent in the Christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter. Lent is a time of sacrifice for Jesus. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Conventionally, it is described as being forty days long, though different denominations calculate the forty days differently. The forty days represent the time that, according to the Bible, Jesus spent in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, where he endured temptation by Satan. There are traditionally forty days in Lent which are marked by fasting, both from foods and festivities, and by other acts of penance.



Since I became educated on the religious holiday I have participated each year.  This year I have decided to fast from all things that come from a box or bag (pertaining to food) if is in within my power.  I am sure I will have a few cases were its simply not avoidable but I would really like to try to eat as clean as possible and when I crave certain things I will be reminded to focus on a few things of importance to me at this point in my life.  Sooo for now, bye-bye pita chips.