I frequently read your paper, and happend to come across the article on Paczki. It was interesting until I got to the part where the writer states “Fat Tuesday is the day of feast before Lent, a time when Catholics give up sweets for 40 days before Easter.” This is not only incorrect, it demonstrates the laziness of the author in neglecting to research something about which they obviously know nothing. A quick search on the internet would have produced the following:
Lent, in some Christian denominations, is the forty-day-long liturgical season of fasting and prayer before Easter.
[1] The forty days represent the time Jesus spent in the desert, where according to the Bible he endured temptation by Satan.
[2] Different churches calculate the forty days differently.
The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer, penitence, alms giving and self-denial‹for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Your author exhibited a laziness not uncommon in today’s society, and the editor exhibited extremely poor taste in printing a statement that reduces a faith practice common not only to Catholics, but to Lutherans, Episcopalians, and others, to nothing more than refusing to eat a donut. Shame on you!!
Kevin Nelson
Editor’s reply: Ouch!
Thanks Kevin, for helping me set the record straight. I promised an article on pazcki and was confused by the information on the Internet (which I prefer not to use as a resource in any case).
I was baffled on how Polish history, Catholicism and a Mardi Gras celebration day (Fat Tuesday) could be related. Frankly I’m still pretty confused, so appreciate your comments all that much more.
Beth Altena
Editor
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