The Saint
Lent
Rose Gaynor and Sarah Lohmann
It's that time of year again: learn some self discipline, rethink your life and lock away the chocolate. Lent is here and Easter is barely visible on the horizon. A fifth of our academic calendar falls under lent. No wonder it seems to come around so quickly. But what is lent and how important is it for St Andrews?
Lent, (although at present it might not seem very apt), comes from the middle English word for spring (Lenten). The custom of giving things up for Lent originates in the Christian practice of abstinence in the 40 days and 40 nights prior to Easter, reflecting the 40 days spent by Jesus in the desert as well as the 40 days it rained on Noah and the 40 years spent by the Israelites in the desert. The six and a half weeks Lent takes over then does not include Sundays which are still a time of celebration when abstinence does not apply (so take advantage of the break!).
In the medieval church meat and sometimes dairy products were forbidden during Lent (leading to the tradition of pancake day- using up all the leftover luxury foods by making pancakes). This excluded fish, as well as animals such as puffins, and barnacle geese which were considered fish by the church due to their affinity with the sea (barnacle geese were believed to hatch from barnacles) as well as beaver tails because of their scaly nature (who knows what they would have thought of the platypus!). In some places abstinence extended to sexual abstinence meaning that any parent whose child's conception could be traced back to the six and a half weeks of Lent would be ostracised. Coupled with the tradition of giving things up is also that of taking something on, which might be seen as a more positive approach to the obligations of lent, using what one would
Although still of religious importance to Christians the effects of Lent have spread beyond this to a point where its a part of our cultural calendar and people give up a cornucopia of activities, foods and drinks for a plurality of reasons ranging from self discipline, to refocusing ones life, to detoxing or as a boost to half forgotten new years resolutions. To get an idea of how Lent is or is not observed within the student community in St Andrews, we decided to venture onto the streets. Roughly a third of the students we spoke to are in some way participating in Lent.
In the majority of cases, that means giving up alcohol, chocolate or other staples of the typical student diet, although we did come across several more imaginative approaches. Trevor S., for example, is giving up speaking, with truly inspiring resolve! When asked about his resolution, Trevor had no comment. If you want to give something up and are still looking for ideas, you may also consider Anna T.'s grand success last year in completely abstaining from wearing pajamas, or Ben R.'s triumph in abstaining from eating babies. You'd rather advance tentatively down the path of actual self-improvement? Then how about learning a new language in 40 days? Our recommendations are Lojban, a syntactially unambiguous constructed language based on predicate logic, or Khoisian, an African language with more than 50 clicks and 70 phonemes. If nothing else, you will at least have found a new way to annoy your friends!
If that's not quite your thing, why not go for a more self-reflective approach? You could start a meditation programme, or follow Marianne M.'s lead and go on a retreat in daily life, meeting a prayer guide for reflection and prayer once a week all through Lent. A bit too spiritual for you? Other approaches that seem to be going well are a youngster from St Regs bid to abstain from alcohol, drugs and masturbation, and surprisingly many vows to abstain from setting foot in Tesco (thank Nisa) and/or KFB. Too specific? Just resolve to do something nice every day! Search for The Lent Experiment on Facebook, and you won't even have to think up good deeds on your own. Pick one option from the two they provide every night and you're good to go! Or does that sound like too much work? Okay, here's one last idea. If you're a Christian, why not follow Tom S.'s advice, and give up Christianity for Lent - perhaps in favour of another religion! Quite conveniently, this would also entail giving up Lent, meaning there's nothing to give up... or just go the whole hog and give up religion for life, a convenient way to avoid that little paradox.
Happy Lenting!
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