It's the long weekend and I wanted to do something to celebrate, so for the first time ever, I made a DoorDash order. I've been eating strictly home-cooked or home-assembled food for the past month and I HAVE HAD ENOUGH. If I can't go out to eat (a.k.a. one of the only things that brings me joy in life), then I have to get something delivered. So I ordered a Spicy Dynamite Roll and a Tonkatsu Donburi from Osaka Sushi. AND IT WAS FUCKING GLORIOUS. Good Friday, indeed.
Still praying and religiously fasting during Lent so I have to eat vicariously through you.
ReplyDeleteSurprised we didn't order BTS. Crab, avocado, izumi tai (or do they mean tilapia?), deep fried yam, tobico with special sauce. Yummy!
Ah, how long do you fast for??
DeleteI was very tempted to get the BTS roll, but I was weary of having raw fish delivered. :(
Will have to try it once we're allowed to go into restaurants again.
From Ash Wednesday until Easter. A sort of training in the event I am martyred / thrown to the lions in the coliseum. This year it was February 26th until after Mass this morning. Determined by the full moon so changes annually. With the quarantine — no church services.
ReplyDeleteNo parish Friday night fish fries, either. And first time the Easter Bunny did not bring me a basket.
Patiently waiting for restaurants to reopen to find halo-halo, a fancy Filipino kakigori.
What does your fast consist of? Like, how many hours a day? When can you eat? What can you eat? I'm fascinated. The only type of fasting I've ever done was for blood tests, lol. And the only religious fasting I've ever seen anyone do is my Muslim friend who fasts for Ramadan.
DeleteIs it weird that I went to an Anglican-based private school and don't know anything about this? Like Ash Wednesday or Easter? I think Jesus was resurrected on Easter? Or maybe Good Friday? I should've paid more attention in prayers and religious studies. I do know that fish is eaten on Fridays, though! ('Cause my high school dining hall served fish on Fridays. And also the Friday McDeal at McDonald's was the Filet-O-Fish.)
I am kind of the wrong person to ask because I attended a parochial school; although things are perfectly normal to me they're stricter than the average.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to sound funny but Easter is determined by the full moon. Which is why the dates change from year to year. Ash Wednesday 2020 was February 26th.
Mardi Gras to me is going to the bakery in the old Polish neighborhood for pączki (POONCH-key). A special type of filled doughnut with alcohol in the dough so it is more substantial than a jelly doughnut and doesn't absorb grease while frying. Traditional prune or rose petal jelly filling. One year I was late and didn't get there until six o'clock in the morning. All that was left were key lime custard. At a Mexican bakery.
Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation. Not mandatory to go to church. So. Go to church. The priest puts ashes on your forehead. Kneel down and pray the rosary. Let the games begin!
I think the ash represents Jesus' suffering because for the rest of the day you'll be intermittently tearing up and blinking ash out of your eyes until you inevitably break down and go to the ladies' room to wash your face.
No alcohol, no tobacco, no meat, no dairy. No candy, no cake, no slushies. Basically a fish-eating vegan. I think black coffee and tea with or without lemon is kosher. Red Bull is probably not. Neither is Kool-Aid or soda water.
So. When I am making the roux for a curry, olive oil instead of butter. Cocoanut milk. Cabbage with the carrots, celery and potatoes instead of hamburger steak or pork and curry sauce over the rice. No mayonnaise on a tuna sandwich. Most Japanese foods are Lent compliant. I eat more traditional things.
One meal a day. Doesn't apply to children, mothers-to-be, nursing mothers or elderly. I had a special dispensation when I was hospitalized with H1N1 influena. It's about sacrifice - not killing yourself. Maybe an apple and a banana for breakfast.
To me, the toughest part used to be the no tobacco.
A time of special prayer. I pray the rosary every day. This year because of the quarantine, churches are closed. No The Stations Of The Cross. Which means no incense. Incense from the monastery is the best. Super frankincense and myrrh. Better than Comme des Garçons Series 3 Incense: Avignon. Trust me. And the Sixth Station, natch. Veronica Wipes The Face Of Jesus.
After Mass celebrating the Resurrection on Easter Sunday which is far more important than
Christmas, head back home to find the basket filled with a big chocolate bunny, jelly beans, decorated hard boiled eggs, an Easter-themed lamb or chick or Hello Kitty Pez dispenser and springtime Pocky which the Easter bunny brought.
No Peeps!
My first year without an Easter basket. And I cancelled the brunch I'd planned. More worried about my little nieces and their Easter.
Wow, you're hardcore... I don't know anyone who's really religious, to be honest, so this was rather enlightening! Do you pray the rosary everyday or during Lent?
DeleteThe toughest part for me would be no tobacco as well. I'd rather give up coffee than cigarettes. And that's saying a lot.
I've never had an Easter basket. Or Peeps. I don't think they're that popular in Canada. Don't really recall seeing them in supermarkets, though it might be because I've never looked for them.
I've only ever lit incense at the Buddhist temple because my grandma was Buddhist. I do love that smell, though.
Sometimes even twice a day. Y'know how church bells used to ring (before people complained) at morning, noon and night? There are specific prayers for those times. On the grade school playground at recess, we'd have to stop, kneel and pray the Angelus. And if we had late afternoon or early evening sports, we'd pray vespers. Which wasn't so bad unless we were playing against a public school team.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason I quit smoking was my friend Spewgie was getting married and she and her husband wanted to start a family right away. It was her willpower that saw us through. I don't care what anybody says. That was the most difficult thing I've ever done. With Lent (or Advent for that matter), it was like being in school. You knew at three o'clock you'd be at the bus stop lighting up. Forever is a lot longer.
Never had an Easter basket? Awwwh. That is so sad. After church, my parents and I would go to my grandparents where I'd get a SECOND EASTER BASKET. You will never experience the tummyache from eating a one pound solid chocolate rabbit and then sitting down to Easter dinner: lamb, scalloped potatoes, asparagus... But you're not missing anything special without Peeps.
My mother was a convert from Shinto. Not a fan of "Catholic" incense.