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Catholics love hearing the words "special dispensation" and who doesn't loving hearing the word, "beef"? It all comes together tomorrow, as the Archdiocese of New York (and the surrounding areas, as well as other parts of the country) is allowing Catholics to eat beef on tomorrow. For all you non-Catholics, on Friday during Lent, plus Ash Wednesday, Catholics aren't allowed to eat meat (fish is okay - sorry fishmongers!). But this is special: The Archdiocese of New York explained to AM New York, "Because St. Patrick is the patron saint of the diocese, the day should be celebrated as a feast day." A feast of beer and corned beef - and shamrock shakes! Here's a list of Irish bars in the city - let us know your suggestions.
The US Department of Agriculture has an interesting fact sheet about corned beef - they don't teach you this stuff in Sunday school, that's for sure.
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damn catholics! what a sham religion. It's like Jews getting permission to eat Pork on passover.
A couple tips from someone who actually speaks a little irish Gaelic...
Slainte (like the bar) means health and is a traditional toast. (Pronounce slaahn-cha)
Say "Dia duit," for hello.
(Pronounce gee-ah ditch)
Enough already!!! Corned beef is about as Irish as Kwanzaa. It's a sham, a joke, a cliche, people.
While Jesus Christ is a bit strident, there is a germ of truth in what our savior says... it just goes to show how bogus the whole no-meat-on-Friday thing is in the first place (my dad used to say it had something to do with the Apostles being fishermen and that it seemed good for business, I don't know...)
I remember one year I gave up cigars for Lent, then asked a friend who was a priest for a dispensation for a party I was going to. He gave me his best "you're full of shit" look and said, "I'm not giving you no dispensation. You want to do it, do it. You want to give it up give it up. But either way, either do it or don't."
('Course, the fact that he was puffing on one of my best Arturo Fuente's while he said this didn't help.)
Of course, that doens't mean I don't love this "patron saint" exemption. I have to find out who the patron saint of getting laid is...
When I was a kid I was given corned beef and cabbage on St Patricks Days and never could develop a taste for the stuff. Too fatty, too salty.
If you give up meat on Friday, and subsitute filet of sole, lobster or fish sticks, you're not exactly being penitent.
www.forgotten-ny.com
What about the Diocese of Brooklyn? I'm not of Irish descent, but I'm invited to two parties hosted by those who are.
Lenten fasting used to be much more severe, with no eating between meals and only one full meal every day (and two smaller meals, the minimum to preserve strength and not adding up to a meal between them) for the whole of lent, in addition to abstinence from meat on Friday. Kind of like Weight Watchers.
The reason? Not to increase fish sales. Perhaps social solidarity had something to do with it. Pre-refrigeration, food used to get really scarce before the first new crops came in during the spring. Without a fast, the well off could eat as much as they wanted, while the poor would have had even less.
The modern analogy is energy. With the price of oil at $60 a barrel, one doubts McMansion dwellers and SUV drivers are turning down the theromstat and carpooling. Instead, as the Russion proverb goes, "the shortage will be divided among the peasants." Perhaps the Diocese should declare a gasoline fast.
A Catholic priest told me, that eating fish, did come from an effort to increase sales for fishermen, in the Middle Ages. Apparently, some fishing guild used to donate a lot to the Church. So, the Church helped them out.
He also told me, that the rule against priests and nuns marrying, or having sex, came about because of money as well. If you were born into wealth, you got an education, in the Dark Ages. If you had an education, you either used it in your position as a member of the landed gentry/aristocracy, or went into the Church. If you did the latter, married, and had kids, your kids got your lands and money on your death. The Church wanted all that land, that was in the hands of married priests and nuns, so they got Rome to rule that the clergy couldn't marry...if you went into the Church, your family agreed to also give to the Church, any inheritances you were in line for.
Whether or not you agree with celibacy, vows of poverty and all that, you have to admit, it was one savvy business move.
Sodomy and birth control are still no-goes, right?