SOME CURIOSITIES OF FASTING.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 2180, 4 July 1890, Page 6

SOME CURIOSITIES OF FASTING.

In the Early Christian Church, wine was as much forbidden as meat to those who were fasting. Very terrible must have been the ancient days of Holy Week that were classed under the euphonious title of Xerophagy, when the only food allowed was bread and salt, to which, in certain localities only, vegetables were added. The rules concerning Lent varied greatly in different localities for several centuries. A. writer in the fifth century mentions that in certain places it lasted only three weeks, in others six, and in some as much as seven. Then there were countries in which the Lenten fast was kept on every day of the week. Sunday was omitted in others, and elsewhere there was no fasting on either that day or Saturday. The Cistercians, who did so much in the Middle Ages for agriculture in this country, used to fast from the 14th of September until Easter, eating neither meat, fish, nor eggs. THE HAPPY SPANIARD. To this day in the Roman Catholic Church the fast days vary greatly in different counties and even dioceses, and although its Lent now begins or ends on the same days throughout the world there is considerable difference in the rules for keeping it in certain localities. Then with regard to Advent there is some diversity. In the fifth century it was kept as a general fast cf forty days, from November 11 till Christmas. This custom has so died out that, although in England and Ireland, Roman Catholics are made to fast on the Wednesdays and Fridays in Advent, there is no such rule on the Continent, except in religious houses, and only in some of those. A curious custom prevails in France of allowing a certain waterfowl that feeds chiefly on fish to be eaten on days of the year on which other flesh meat is forbidden. We think, however, that many people who have once tasted this particular delicacy will not be likely to avail themselves of the privilege a second time. The most interesting exceptional rule connected with abstinence is one that exists in Spain. It seems that at the time of the Crusades all who contributed a fixed annual sum were dispensed from certain days of abstinence by a Papal Bull, and this dispensation has never been withdrawn. As the fee required has now become a mere trifle through the deterioration in the value of the money (about a couple of shillings), the dispensation has fallen within the reach of most people, and the funds thus accumulated are devoted to charitable purposes. MODERN MERCIFULNESS. It is interesting to remember th&t, when the rules about fasting were far stricter among Roman Catholics in England than they are now, such a thing as eating flesh during Lent being unheard of, and the fast days at other times being much more numerous than at present, it was very difficult for those living inland to get any Jfresh fish, caught in the Bea, aud that the potato, to say nothing of certain other vegetables, had not yet been introduced into this country. Tea and coffee were unknown, as also were tobacco and many other little luxuries which tend to make a day of fasting or abatinenoe far from intolerable in modern times. Nor should it be forgotten that eggs were not allowed on fast days in the Middle Ages. Cheese, milk, and butter were long forbidden. The permission to eat meat at the "one meal " on every day in Lent except Wednesdays and Fridays and the last four days of Holy Week, is very modern indeed, nor is it universal. Another modern innovation is the toleration of the custom of taking a little tea or coffee with a few mouthfuls, which are not to count at all, at breakfast time, as well as the ' half meal," which, with certain restrictions, is allowed under the title of collation later on in the day.