Do you celebrate it? What are you giving up? For those of you who don't know, Lent is the 40 days before Easter. A time of cleansing for Christians. Generally, the tradition is to give up something you do often or a bad habit for forty days to refocus you mind on God. I'm giving up swearing. This should be hard for me. P.S. Please please please please don't turn this into a religion fight.
I didn't even know about this. I'll give up watching soap operas and eating fast food. Too easy Well that blew my last idea up... hmmm... Procrastination? darn, that wuld be inpossible.
40 days is just too hard, i'll just give something up for one day......my birthday sounds like a good idea.
While I am not religious, I actually love this idea. I've never heard of the season of Lent before, though. I sometimes fast for 2 weeks... which is to say, I consume nothing but water for 2 weeks. 40 days, though... hmmm... yeah, that would kill me XD. So I guess I would give up coffee and smoking. I also do that from time to time, for a couple of months, just to preserve my delusions of free will. For a real challenge I might try to give up sexual gratification, but I don't think I could do it. And as I work in customer service, well... awkward!
I was told by a Catholic friend to give up something special and important to me. I gave up Catholicism!
Funny, this is the only Catholic thing I do anymore. I'm giving up soda this year -- which is what I did last year. I got through 40 days, then didn't have much soda during the summer because I working at a summer camp. I'm working on cutting it out completely, so this is a good start. My girlfriend is giving up ice crunching, which has been surprisingly hard for her
I tried giving up swearing for Lent my senior year in high school, and I decided I was just going to shoot for not swearing forty days out of the year, rather than the forty consecutive days of Lent. Even trying it that way, I'm not sure if I managed it...
I know a lot of people who give up meat. I have been a vegetarian for almost 13 years I know people giving up soda. I already gave up soda as a New Years Resolution. I know people who give up drinking. I am not much of a drinker anyway. I know people who are giving up smoking. Already don't smoke. In the United Methodist Church, the emphasis is less on giving something up than it is bettering oneself. The focus is on praying more, doing daily devotionals, taking a Lenten class. I will just focus on being a better spiritual person, better at taking care of my health, better wife, better dog owner...better person. I will give up the time it will take to do those things.
I find this interesting, Carmina, because I am in a Methodist church, and this is actually the first year that I've heard it explained as *not* giving something up. Our pastors (they're new, but awesome) "introduced" to us the idea that you could take on something instead of giving up something. So, it's been an interesting year.
I've never celebrated lent. But I know what I would give up, if I did. It would have to be sugar. I love coffee, but I'm not addicted to it. I AM addicted to sugar and hate what it does to me.
I would give up drinking but I've never drunk a drop in my life and never will. I'd give up smoking but I've never set a cigarette to my mouth and never will. I'd give up drugs, but I do not dirty myself with such nonsense. Maybe I'll just pray more or something.
LOL, so did I a while back. You make me laugh. I still participate in Lent, though. I prefer it to New Year's Resolutions because forty days in comparison to 365 is a lot more attainable! (I still try to keep New Year's Resolutions, however...) I also like how it is about cleansing yourself and purging your bad habits. The only difference is I dont do it to pay tribute or homage or as a form of worship. *shrug* On the day of Lent I had decided to give biting my nails (a habit I've kept for a long time now, and I have some yucky hands as a result) and all 'bad-for-you' foods that start with the letter C (example: cookies, cake, cream, cheese, candy)... but I broke the latter the very next day when the Girl Scouts dropped off Daddy's order. They'll be gone within a few days (my family is such the American household --'fat and proud') so I'm starting again as of right... now.
I know what Lent is - living in a predominently RC country, it's hard not to - but it does not feature in my religion so I don't celebrate it. Prices of chocolate bars fall at this time, which is good news! It's interesting to hear how different people mark it, though.
