[Sca-cooks] Lenten ideas for non Christians...

[Sue Clemenger]

Thanks, Lainie, for putting me straight, geographically!  I am, indeed, in
Artemisia.  In the cold part of Artemisia.  The
minus-20-below-zero-tonight-and-that's-farenheit-and-none-of-your-wimpy-celc
ius part of Artemisia.  There's at least one other person on the list with a
similar name, though ("MairI" with the "I" and not the "E"), and she does
live in Oz.  Oddly enough, I think we even have the same mundane first name.
I swear, it's not a conspiracy.  Really, it's not! ;o)
I didn't catch the original post (although I spent a very pleasant Saturday
evening reading old blogs by the Yarn Harlot--gotta love Canadian
humor....), so I'm going to assume that was a legit question, and not list
weirdness....Pay attention, Radei....I'm doing this for my persona, silly
man.  Not for Sue's religious practices, but Maire's.  Sue's path isn't much
into fasting, even if it is very much into seasonal awareness and meditation
and practicing mindfulness (thanks for the ideas, Johann!).  And while Sue
has a fairly reasonable christian background (enough so that she can quote
parts of the Bible with the best of them), she doesn't come from a tradition
that makes a big deal of Lent.  She doesn't even come from a part of the
country in which Catholics, or Greek or Russian Orthodox believers are even
very common.  We have lots of Lutherans, though, and as a child, I was
actually forced to eat lutefisk.  Once.  ;o) (obligatory food content)
I'm not just doing this for the cool recipes, although food is certainly
fun.  I'm doing this primarily for persona research (thanks, ladies for
pointing that out), which is not something I've spent much time on, over
lo-these-many years.  The longer I do this SCA thing, the more I'm
discovering the real pleasure of doing more than just shrugging and calling
something "good enough," whether it's my generic persona, or
not-bad-but-not-very-authentic clothing, or my largely medievaloid feast
experiences.  Secondarily,  I'm also quite willing to let my SCA-based
knowledge and experiences influence and flavor my modern life.  If that
means I not only gain a deeper appreciation of simple food, and the
discipline involved in committing to abstinence in a world of
over-abundance, but also a better understanding of what this season means to
my christian friends, then all the better, no?
Besides, the resident kitties like the idea of 40 days worth of fish. ;o)
--Maire (Artemisian), off to bed so that she can get up at a reasonable hour
tomorrow, and see if it's possible to knit socks and do recipe research at
the same time.....

----- Original Message -----
From: "Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at jeffnet.org>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 10:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Lenten ideas for non Christians...


> At 08:53 PM 2/18/2006, you wrote:
> >On 2/18/06 8:32 PM, "Radei Drchevich" <radei at moscowmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Lent for non-Christians?  Isn't that like Oxegen for
Methane-breathers?
> > >
> > > joy
> > > radei
> >
> >That does sound counter-intuitive, doesn't it?
>
> Nahhh... ;-)
>
> >  But [1] Maire is putting
> >some real effort into her SCA persona and that's worthy of praise.  I'm
one
> >of the very few Caidans that even seems to notice Lent, far less
incorporate
> >it into food planning for events - and I didn't grow up Christian in any
> >way, Jewish family and all.
>
> I grew up in various fundamentalist churches- no Lenten observation, other
> than the little kids waving construction-paper palms on Palm Sunday. My
> parents thought Catholics were idolatrous, so most of medieval Christian
> practice was completely off the map.
>
> >   It's all about really trying to look through
> >Medieval eyes.
>
> YES! And I think that this sort of thing could be SO eye-opening for so
> many SCAdians, to actually get a bit of a feel for something that was so
> big a part of daily life! I've simply been trying to get a grip on what
> daily sort of observances Elaine might have made in 1406- Lenten
observance
> is over and above that. But 40 days is more than a tenth of the year- a
> pretty important chunk of it. Can we really understand medieval life
> without it?
>
> >  [2] The winter sleep before the stirring of springtime is a
> >good time for meditation on the cycle of life... Um, come to think of it,
> >isn't Maire in Australia though?
>
> Nope! She's in Artemisia! (Montana)
>
> Interesting thought though- the opposition of Lent and Easter and the
> autumn Down Under...
>
> Frankly, I'm really ready for spring to come...
>
> 'Lainie, tired of winter