Easter in the Orthodox Church is this weekend and it must be quite something. Forty days of veganism (plus fish), which is what their Lent amounts to, must take its toll on you … but just imagine your first egg on Easter Sunday. The Orthodox Church maintains the old rigour which Catholics used to possess before our moral fibre weakened and we gave up sweets instead of meat, but we miss out on the explosive character of Easter too. Forty days of beans, chickpeas, leeks, greens and bread (though I note no one appears to include drink) would have an awful effect on your temper even if Sundays don’t count. I mean, I gave up chocolate, plus milk in my tea, for Lent, and it was dire. But I made up for it; today, for instance, I saw off a packet of chocolate eclairs plus a sizeable chocolate bunny, and that’s been par for the course since Easter. Reader, I feel sick. But that’s nothing by comparison with the orgy of Easter consumption you’d have after a full-on Lent like the Eastern Churches still do.
But then, in Orthodox cultures, these things are easier because most people are doing the same as you.
24 April 2019, The Tablet
Today I saw off a packet of chocolate eclairs plus a sizeable chocolate bunny
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