re: What is meaning behind no meat Fridays during Lent?

Also...for the longest time the Church abstained from meat throughout the full 40 days of Lent. Indeed, up until Vatican II, Catholics abstained from meat every Friday of the year. A typical fast in the Middle Ages would see a family eat only one meal a day Monday-Saturday. Sundays were seen as a perennial celebration due to the fact that Christ was raised from the dead on Sunday, and thus Catholics were allowed to feast on that day (and are still allowed to in the present).

As stated in the article I quoted above, the reason for all of this is to mimic Christ's fasting in the desert for 40 days prior to the beginning of his public ministry. The whole purpose behind Lent is to grow spiritually as we prepare for the celebration of Easter - the holiest day on the Christian calendar.