February 09, 2005

Curious George: Mardi Gras fun/Lent sacrifice? Did any monkeys get to do anything fun for Mardi Gras? (Like have a yummy king cake or any more adult oriented fun?) Do any monkeys give up something for Lent?

I'll start: today, I went to see Sideways (an excellent film) and had a good dinner with lots of wine. I was not brought up Catholic, but I do think Lent can be a nice re-start on the whole New Years resolution thing. (I'm going to try to go to the gym more starting tomorrow.) On the other hand, a friend of mine once gave up being Catholic for Lent.

posted by meredithea 19 years ago
  • I will add that the bars here in town were serving purple (urp) beer. If anyone got any purple beer, I salute you and your intestines.
  • One Lent, when I was still a practicing Episcopalian, I gave up cursing. I was unrecognizable to my friends. Another Lent, I gave up porn. Longest forty days of my life.
  • One year I gave up Catholicism for Lent. I have not looked back since.
  • A friend back at college used to get a king cake shipped from Louisiana each year for the hall. This year she's in England 'stuck with pancakes' for Shrove Tuesday. I, being one of apparently many people who gave up Catholicism for Lent, did New Year's food this evening instead - fish, oranges, dumplings, and red bean paste buns. Of course, I regularly celebrate any holiday that strikes my fancy, including Thursdays.
  • I gave up cursing for Lent once too, the_bone. I gave up meat once or twice. A few years ago I decided I was tired of the charade, although I do still have an occasional pang of guilt while eating a burger on a Lenten Friday night. Wish I could be in NO, though, if only because I could use a good hurricane or two.
  • This lent I am giving up Catholocism. Tomorrow we have an all-school mass, and it will be the first year I go without ash on my forehead.
  • cobalt: it is lunar new year afterall. on topic, i never thought of lent as a red wine version of a new year's resolution before. have some blood, have some bread. now that we're all high on the almighty, what'chu gonna do about it? oh yeah, and the Buddha gave up his princehood and famly and riches. Must have been for lent. Buddha was the first Catholic, don't ya know?
  • Not as original as I might have thought - at eight, I gave up dogmatic religions for lent - never looked back.
  • Did any monkeys get to do anything for Mardi Gras? Lent per se is not customarily celebrated by Tibetan Buddhists. But the Chinese/Tibetan New Year today (the 9th) is part of a ten day/two week celebration at the year's hinge called Losar, the whole period being extremely auspicious. Happy New Year to all!
  • Gave up masturbating when I was in junior high. For the record this is a bad idea. I think this year I may give up meat, or a specific subset of meat, ie. chicken, pork, or beef. It'll be interesting to see how long I can go before a cheeseburger breaks me.
  • Remember feeling odd as the only Irish catholic kid in primary school with a big dob of ash on my head on Ash Wednesday. I went to bed early last night, but could still hear all the neighbours letting off fireworks for new year even though they're banned in the cities. In the countryside there's more explosives going than a minor civil war. The other big deal is a big TV variety show they do every new year's eve, which everybody has fun slagging off and sayong 'not as good as it used to be'. it does feature one of China's few genuinely funny mainstream comedians though, Zhao Benshan. Bit more about it on Danwei. I've had Chinese friends studying abroad have me bring them tapes of the show it's such a cultural fixture.
  • we have a plethora of king cakes in our news bureau. (one of our papers is the new orleans times-picayune.) whoever gets the baby buys the next cake, so there's plenty to go around. yum! we were raised catholic, my sister always gives up chocolate. and i always tell her she's insane.
  • I'm giving up my knee-jerk reaction to slam organized religion without hint or provocation. dammit!
  • SideDish - after several misguided years where I gave up caffeine or chocolate, last year I gave up giving up caffeine or chocolate. It really made Lent a nice time of year for me. Perhaps you could suggest it to your sister.
  • A friend plays in a cajun band in and around Lafayette, La. One of the big stories he heard this year was about local troops in Iraq that managed to get a parade of humvees and military vehicles going. There's other stories that float around about this person or that one's cousin in Iraq that packed their accordion and/or fiddle when they got sent over.
  • The last time I gave up anything for lent, it was TV. Never went back, except for the occasional show or movie every few weeks. Before the next lend came around I had given up on the catholic church. Never went back to that either. I'm not going to bash it though. Most of the rituals are kind of silly, but the evangelists running around these days make the catholics seem harmless in comparison.
  • I gave up promises I can't keep.
  • btw, the note on the king cake link about how you absolutely cannot make the king cake any time besides after twelth night until "Mardis gras day" just makes me want to make it for the 4th of July of Bastille Day or something. In fact, I will....
  • I gave up slacking for lent this year. Last year, I gave up a woman. It restored my sanity.
  • I gave up hope for lent.