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

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C&E Catholics (Christmas and Easter)

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I like it

I’m Catholic and find this ridiculous. Even my grandparents will be sure to text me, no meat today! As they head off to Mike Andersons.

I think my 99% lean ground turkey and rice is more of a sacrifice than fried fish or crawfish

A few years ago, the 79 year old receptionist at my work about had a heart attack when she saw me eating a burger for lunch on a Friday during lent. I had to explain to her that not everyone is Catholic. I'm pretty sure she doused herself in holy water when I told her I didn't follow any religion.

So much for tradition. Most archdiocese in the US are doing this.

Archbishop letting Catholics in New Orleans area eat meat on St. Patrick's Day

I observe meatless Monday’s, but that’s primarily for the alliteration and health benefits.

I also make an exception for pork and ham products in my red beans on Monday’s.

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Historians generally agree that the 40-day period before Easter, known as Lent, emerged shortly following the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. Earliest observances of Lent seem to have focused particularly on the practice of fasting. Council records suggest that the fast applied at first mainly to new converts as a period of repentance and reflection before baptism at Easter. In any case, Lent quickly became a general practice churchwide. The actual 40-day period varied region-to-region, even church-to-church; some including weekends, some not; some fasting Sundays, others not. But in every case, the fast was strict: one meal a day after 3 PM with no meat, fish, or dairy. It was Pope Gregory I (590 - 604) who finally regularized the period of the fast churchwide, to begin on a Wednesday 46 days before Easter with a ceremony of ash, and not to include Sundays, which were perennial days of celebration.

Other historical records indicate that a pre-Easter season of fasting, had actually been in practice already, as far back as the second century, and perhaps even earlier. In “History of Lent,” Father William Saunders writes that early church father, St. Irenaeus (c. 130 - 202), in a letter to Pope St. Victor, mentioned a dispute about the number of days for the pre-Easter fast. Irenaeus noted that such “variation in observance did not originate in our own day, but very much earlier, in the time of our forefathers." Irenaeus himself was a third generation disciple after the Apostles, so his dating of lenten fasting back to the time of his “forefathers” establishes it as a practice from the very earliest days of the church. Irenaeus’ letter references the idea of a fast lasting 40 days before Easter, strongly suggesting the concept predated Irenaeus’ own time. Jesus fasting 40 days and 40 nights in the desert to prepare for his public ministry is thought to be the primary inspiration for such a timeframe.

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LINK

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.