What are you giving up for Lent? Today is the first day of Lent

[Lionel Mandrake]

for Eastern Orthodox churches. Orthodox Easter will be five weeks after Western Easter this year. That's the maximum divergence. The divergence results mostly from the fact that Eastern Orthodox churches still use the Julian Calendar for calculating Easter.

Why do they do this? It's because the Gregorian Calendar began as a Roman Catholic thing, and the Eastern churches have refused to take orders from the Pope since the Great Schism (1054 CE).

I thought I would give up bungee jumping and mixed martial arts, since I have never done either of these things.

[Raven]

1. Lent...I gave it up years ago. :-)

[RebelOne]

6. Same here.

Gave it up when I went from Episcopalian to atheist.

[hrmjustin]

2. The Orthodox have a very strict lent.

After a week of it my friends are always grouchy. I sometimes go to their Easter celebrations and after the Easter Vigil they Eat everything at the reception that could go hours into the night.

[LiberalEsto]

20. My father's cousin's husband used to fast almost entirely for 40 days

I think he lived on bread and water. As he got into his 80s this regimen used to land him in the hospital, but I don't think he stopped doing the fasting.

Eastern Orthodox Easter is really spectacular - at the midnight Easter service they have a procession led three times around the church by the head priest, who carries a large crucifix. The churchgoers carries wands of pussywillows, and get sprinkled with holy water. Clouds of incense waft over everyone. I only went once, just to see what it was like, because one of my great-grandfathers had been a Russian Orthodox priest. They're allowed to marry, btw.

[trof]

3. Coconut

I figure I can do with out coconut for a few days.

[pinboy3niner]

7. Lime and coconut

I hear it can give you a stomach ache...

[Lionel Mandrake]

8. Reminds me of the Nairobi Trio

on the Ernie Kovacs TV show (many years ago).

... except that the the Nairobi Trio was more likely to involve a banana than a coconut.

[pinboy3niner]

9. That's precisely who Nilsson was channeling

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My grandpa always gave up watermelon and roller skating!

[Moondog]

5. Hmmm. I'll give up thinking about what I might give up.

[pinboy3niner]

10. What? And miss all the fun of sacrifice?

[Moondog]

11. Heh. Wait for it . . .

sacrifices must be made.

[In_The_Wind]

12. Oh really.

Do tell.

[Moondog]

15. Heh.

[ohiosmith]

13. I'm giving up Guido! Fuck him! He planned the whole thing!

[In_The_Wind]

14. moi. nothing.

[TrogL]

16. You do not give up stuff for Lent

Lent is a time of study and contemplation. You avoid what is interfering with that

[Lionel Mandrake]

17. If I avoided what interferes with study and contemplation,

I sure as hell wouldn't be posting on DU!

[talkingmime]

18. I'm giving up religion for Lent.

[hack89]

19. Lent. nt