Lent

Holly88

Holly88

New member
Hey guys,

So, I was wondering, how many people 'celebrate' Lent?

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about: Lent is the 40 day period between 'Shrove Tuesday' (or Pancake Day as it's usually known over here) and Easter Sunday.

It's traditional that you 'give up' something during these forty days. Chocolate is a popular choice, I guess because Easter usually involves a LOT of chocolate. But I've known people give up some weird things; I knew a guy who gave up shaving his beard for lent.

Although this is obviously tied to Christianity, I know a fair few non-religious people who still give up something for the Lent period (simply out of tradition).

So, I was just wondering whether Lent has any associated traditions in other cultures/countries?

Also, if you are giving something up this Lent, what are you going to give up?

I just love learning about the way people live in other parts of the world :D
 
Last edited:
I'm boring ol' English like you but I might try and give up wine but I doubt I'll manage it! Chocolate would be easy as I don't like it, maybe that then! :p What about you hun?
 
I'm thinking of trying to go cold turkey on sweet things altogether. I love chocolate but if I gave that up I'd just find something else sweet/sugary to replace it with!
 
good luck with either the wine or chocolate sunflower and also with the sweet things Holly,I plan on giving up a bowl of cereal before bed,i do it all the time with a film before bed but if i kicked that for lent and continued to not have it,i would b losing an awful lot of calories ,but thats not enough,i think il give up a few other things along with it since its the perfect time to do so.
 
In Scandinavia we celebrate Fastlagstisdagen/Fettisdagen (Shrove Tuesday) by having cream buns, yum!!

semla-744533_27820364.jpg
 
Last edited:
Oh my god that looks amazing! Ha, we just eat loads and loads of pancakes. Yummm I love pancakes! The first two always go totally wrong when I make them though - ie end up on the floor due to bad flipping, or worse: burnt.
 
I gave up Facebook for Lent.
When I told my friends I had a few who congratulated me and wished me luck and a few who looked at me funny and asked me if I know that Lent was 40 days, I said yes.
They then looked me and said, and 40 Nights, I said, yes, I know, more strange looks and a long oohhkayyy.... yeah right.

You know what, I didn't think I could do it, but here I am, Facebook free, I'm starting to thing maybe I don't need to go back to Facebook at all considering I spent over 3 hours on it EVERY DAY sometime all day on my days off.
 
transparent said:
I gave up Facebook for Lent.
When I told my friends I had a few who congratulated me and wished me luck and a few who looked at me funny and asked me if I know that Lent was 40 days, I said yes.
They then looked me and said, and 40 Nights, I said, yes, I know, more strange looks and a long oohhkayyy.... yeah right.

You know what, I didn't think I could do it, but here I am, Facebook free, I'm starting to thing maybe I don't need to go back to Facebook at all considering I spent over 3 hours on it EVERY DAY sometime all day on my days off.
Click to expand...

It's scary how addictive Facebook is. Just plain scary. I don't know how many billions in lost productivity Mark Zuckerburg is directly responsible for......but it's a lot.
 
Iain1974 said:
It's scary how addictive Facebook is. Just plain scary. I don't know how many billions in lost productivity Mark Zuckerburg is directly responsible for......but it's a lot.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but that's nonsense. If people don't want to work, they won't. If it is not Facebook, it's something else that will keep them from doing it.

Do you honestly think that productivity was at 100% before Facebook existed?

There was always stuff people would do instead of working. Texting on their phones was a very popular at some point (and still is), as well as playing games on the internet, playing handheld games, or even downloading porn.

And I am sorry, but I can't see how a website can be addictive. There is nothing on it that forces anybody to log on. Nothing whatsoever. That's like saying TV is addictive because people spend time watching it.

I'm on Facebook. I check a couple of times a day, and use it to keep in touch with people. I have a very small friend's list. When the floods hit Australia a few months back, a friend of mine let everybody know via her mobile phone that she was alright - by putting it on Facebook. Instead of having to send a pile of text messages, or lengthy phone calls, it was a few seconds, and everybody could stop worrying. A good thing if you ask me.

I don't get people's obsession with demonizing Facebook. I for one spent a hell lot more time on this forum than Facebook, does this make me addicted? Is it a bad thing?

If somebody wants to waste time, they will. If they don't do it on Facebook, they'll do it somewhere else, it's as simple as that.
 
For me, Facebook is the only way to quickly get in touch with my family and friends, people I otherwise wouldn't otherwise hear from. That's what it means to me, no more, no less.
 
San said:
I'm sorry, but that's nonsense. If people don't want to work, they won't. If it is not Facebook, it's something else that will keep them from doing it.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Facebook is just one of the many, many, many avenues of distraction that keep people from working.

San said:
I don't get people's obsession with demonizing Facebook. I for one spent a hell lot more time on this forum than Facebook, does this make me addicted? Is it a bad thing?
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but I'm one of those people that rip on Facebook. My biggest problem with Facebook is that people act as if it some sort of genius way of keeping in touch with friends and family.

First of all, no...it's not. It's a borrowed idea that was used on literally hundreds and hundreds of other websites looooong before Mark Zuckerberg came into the picture and 'came up with' the idea for a social networking site. It's nothing new. It's just like the iPhone or the iPod - Steve Jobs didn't invent those technologies - he simply used pre-existing technology, gave it a different name and marketed it as some sort of original idea. And, since people are sheep that flock to wherever the media tells them to go, they all went and bought Apple products, just like they all flock to Facebook.

It's a fad and it will die. And, when it does, Facebook users will move onto the next fad and spend all of their time there. (Remember MySpace? I know a lot of people who now make fun of MySpace, but used to spend all of their time there. Baaaaah, baaaaah.)

Second of all, it's called a phone. If you (not you personally - "you" in general) were really friends with someone, you would pick up a phone and call them. Hopping on Facebook and typing out a message on someone's wall is a cop out. It takes 5 minutes to pick up a phone, call someone and say 'hi', but people act as if it's sooooo time consuming. Yet, a lot of those same people have no problem sitting in front of their computer, leering at their 'friends' status updates for hours. So, it's ok for people to find time to sit and waste their time looking at peoples' Facebook pages, but it's just too hard to pick up a phone and talk to someone for a few minutes?

I'm sorry, but nobody is that busy.

San said:
And I am sorry, but I can't see how a website can be addictive. There is nothing on it that forces anybody to log on. Nothing whatsoever. That's like saying TV is addictive because people spend time watching it.
Click to expand...

I don't think websites can be addicting, but I do think they can be a huge social problem. People spend too much time on social networking sites, so much so that it's to the point where they begin to act as if the Internet is real life.

It's one thing to occasionally look at your Facebook page - it's another thing to check it constantly and browse through everybody else's pages multiple times a day. I mean, in all honesty, think about how much time people truly WASTE on Facebook. Hours. Hours every day. Every...single...day. A lot of people have no problem wasting hours of their day on Facebook, but, to go back to my original gripe, they think that finding 5 minutes to pick up a phone every once in a while is something that just can't realistically be done?

One of my best friends hasn't called me in nearly a year. Through the grapevine, I heard that he hasn't called me because, and I quote, he's "way too busy to find the time." Funny, because he finds the time to update his Facebook page numerous times a day (I've heard from my friends). He can manage to come home after a long day of work, walk into his computer room, turn on his computer, log into Facebook, browse through everybody's pages, post some updates, comment on people's walls, etc...but he can't pick up a phone, press 7 numbers and talk to me?

It's not addicting, no. But, it's most certainly an excuse - a poor one at that. It's an excuse for people to NOT be social. Which is extremely ironic, considering it is a social networking site.
 
Nothing genius about Facebook, I never claimed it was. It's a tool, that's all.

It definitely was genius of Mark Zuckerberg to make that much money out of it though.

Might be a fad or might not. Don't care, as long as there is something to replace it. And no, I don't remember MySpace, never used it.

Phone's nice. I'd love to spend hours on the phone to my mom in Germany, or my friend in Australia, or the one in the USA. Unfortunately, I can't afford the phone calls. A 30 minute phone call to Germany costs me about £ 5. I can't afford that on a regular basis. Australia and USA wouldn't work because they are even more expensive, and because of the time difference.

In addition, it is easy enough to sit down for two minutes and check for Facebook messages while having a disabled stepchild raise holy hell in the background. I can't do that on the phone. I also have a disabled friend who can't use the phone. We stay in touch through Facebook. To her, places like Facebook are a window to the world, where she can interact with people without being hindered by her disability.

I'm not saying that Facebook is the best thing since sliced bread, far from it, but it's not a bad thing either. Yeah, some people overdo it, but let's face it, if it wasn't Facebook, it'd be something else.

That friend of yours wouldn't call anyway, Facebook or not. It's not about being social or not, it's about not giving a damn. Sorry to be so harsh, but you can't blame a website for a person's character faults.

What pees me off is that some people see everybody who uses Facebook like some kind of socially challenged, game addicted numbnut who's not interested in anything but posting every event of their life for everybody to read - but that's not the case.

Yes, I use Facebook. Yes, I find it useful. But no, I do not read people's 'walls'. I don't spend hours on Facebook. I have a real life which consumes most of my time. I also got to know 2 people who I consider really good friends through Facebook. I've met them in person and have been in contact with them ever since. And I think I have 12 Facebook 'friends' - all people I know in real life.

Guess I just don't take too kindly to being considered a tart just because I make use of what the internet has to offer. And I know you put 'not you personally' into your post, but it still irks me, because what you wrote was such a horrible generalisation. Yes, there are extremes, but stupid people are everywhere. No need to tar everybody with the same brush.
 
San said:
Nothing genius about Facebook, I never claimed it was. It's a tool, that's all.

It definitely was genius of Mark Zuckerberg to make that much money out of it though.
Click to expand...

He got lucky. There was no genius behind it.

San said:
That friend of yours wouldn't call anyway, Facebook or not. It's not about being social or not, it's about not giving a damn. Sorry to be so harsh, but you can't blame a website for a person's character faults.
Click to expand...

Oh, I know he wouldn't call, even without Facebook. He expects other people to do all of the work when it comes to staying in contact and that's why we haven't talked in forever. That wasn't the point. The point was that people (like that friend of mine) are willing to put in the effort to hop on Facebook (and other websites), sometimes multiple times a day, and keep in contact with their "friends" on the Internet, but come up with all sorts of excuses as to why they can't pick up a phone and talk to someone in real life.

For instance - in the time it took you to type out your post, you could've picked up a phone and called one of your friends. Anybody could've done so. But, people are just way too willing (and lazy) to take their time and spend it online, but not willing enough to take that time and use it to have real life interaction with the people in their lives.

5 minutes is 5 minutes. Whether you spend it online or on the phone with someone, those 5 minutes are still spent. So, if someone has time to sit in front of their computer and contact everybody via the Internet, then they most certainly have time to contact them on the phone.

San said:
What pees me off is that some people see everybody who uses Facebook like some kind of socially challenged, game addicted numbnut who's not interested in anything but posting every event of their life for everybody to read - but that's not the case.
Click to expand...

No, not everybody is like that, but I find it hard to believe that most people use Facebook to actually keep in contact with the people in their lives because it's the only way they can do so. It's a convenience, yes. But, people also use it as a cop out just so they don't have to make the effort to ACTUALLY keep in contact with the people in their lives.

Once again, 5 minutes is 5 minutes. If you can take 5 minutes to type out a message to somebody on Facebook, then why can't you take those same 5 minutes to pick up a phone and talk to them? Once again, not you personally - just you in general.

San said:
Guess I just don't take too kindly to being considered a tart just because I make use of what the internet has to offer. And I know you put 'not you personally' into your post, but it still irks me, because what you wrote was such a horrible generalisation. Yes, there are extremes, but stupid people are everywhere. No need to tar everybody with the same brush.
Click to expand...

I wasn't talking about the extremes though. From what I see and from what I know, that is the norm.

I don't know one person who uses Facebook that doesn't hop on it multiple times a day. I don't know one person who uses Facebook that has nothing but their honest friends and honest family members on their 'friends' list. I don't know one person who uses Facebook because it's necessary, because it's the only way to honestly stay in contact with the people in their lives.

You may be the exception to that, but you are just one person. The number of people who do the opposite of what you do far outnumbers you. So, from what I see and from what I know, you are in the minority.
 
ChefChiTown said:
You may be the exception to that, but you are just one person. The number of people who do the opposite of what you do far outnumbers you. So, from what I see and from what I know, you are in the minority.
Click to expand...

I will have to take your word for that. I know a few people who use Facebook in the same way I do, but I freely admit that I know enough of the other extreme as well.

And as said, for me personally, getting on the phone is simply not a viable option for numerous reasons.

Other than that, I guess I will be a minority then, and pretty darn proud of it!!! ;)
 
San said:
I will have to take your word for that. I know a few people who use Facebook in the same way I do, but I freely admit that I know enough of the other extreme as well.

And as said, for me personally, getting on the phone is simply not a viable option for numerous reasons.

Other than that, I guess I will be a minority then, and pretty darn proud of it!!! ;)
Click to expand...

Your reasons are extremely valid and understandable. I would rather keep in touch with my friends for free, rather than spend all sorts of 'extra' money to make overseas phone calls. And, I don't blame you for taking the free route, HAHAHA.

I'm just old fashioned I guess. Yes, I use the Internet and I spend time on the forum and browsing through various site. But, I don't use it as my main means of communication with my friends and/or family. And, I don't expect them to use it as their main means of communication with me either. If I can't get together with them in person, we all have phones - let's use them.

That's my take anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top