The Medieval Monk

Blogum scribo

Picture
  • Welcome
  • What I do
  • Blog
  • Projects & Publications
  • Buy me a coffee
  • Contact Me

11/12/2014

Christmas fasting, not feasting!

4 Comments

Read Now
 

Never mind those advent chocolates, or that mulled wine and German sausage at the Christmas market!  We good Anglo-Saxons are expected to fast before Christmas - forty days, I'll have you know!

Picture
Feasting in the Bayeux Tapestry. Image from Wikipedia Commons.
Two weeks to go until Geol! That’s ‘Yule’ or Christmas to you, my blessed readers. (Old English Geol, by the way, is pronounced quite similarly to ‘Yule’, that is, with a soft ‘g’). 

Alas!  I’m failing miserably in my preparations.  You see, I’m supposed to be fasting the forty days before Christmas, so that I can concentrate on reading prayers for everyone. 

Well, I’m doing pretty well with the latter, well at least when I can keep my mind off food!  But having to stave off the hunger until nones (the ninth hour, or 3 p.m. in your world) is, I fear, just too much for me. 

And I’d promised so faithfully – vowed, in fact – that I would lose a few pundas (that’s ‘pounds’ to you, no funny kilo stuff in my world) before the inevitable onslaught of festivities and feasting. 

You understand my logic: I’m getting a bit porky around my middle so I need to anticipate my Christmas gluttony; lose the weight beforehand, in order that I won’t feel the need to confess in the New Year once I’ve piled on the fat.  I’m nothing if not imaginative. 

Now, I’ve been wondering all day if I should try to get back on track somehow.  Then I realised I needed a greater motivation for fasting, a stronger reason, something more than the fact that fasting gives me more time to pray for you all. 

So I’ve just been poring over my penitential (penance book) to see what sins would attract two weeks of fasting.  I’m not saying I’m going to commit the sins, I just want to imagine that I’ve committed them.  That way, then, I will feel more obligated than at present to complete the remainder of my fasting period.  You understand, I know you do.

So over the next few days I will let all my blessed readers know what I come up with: that is, what sin(s) = 14 days fasting.  I’m feeling better motivated already.  Here’s my first sin; well, looks like I’m going to have to imagine doing it twice:

‘If he vomits because of drunkenness or gluttony or illness, he is to fast 7 days or is to sing two psalters’.  (Scriftboc: translation by Allen J. Frantzen)

Seems straight forward enough.  The only caveat is that I mustn’t ‘throw up the host’ (that’s the holy bread at Mass), otherwise I get 40 days.  Well, I could never imagine doing that!



Share

4 Comments
Char link
13/12/2014 09:58:31 am

He might not feel much like singing if he's suffering from a hangover… ;)

Reply
Chris *The Anglo-Saxon Monk
13/12/2014 10:33:56 am

Ha! Love that. Singing psalms with a hangover. Hilarious image!

Reply
Kim link
4/8/2016 01:40:44 pm

Great reading post. Thank for share with us

Reply
Chris / Anglo-Saxon Monk
4/8/2016 02:23:47 pm

Thanks, Kim. Hope you find other stuff too that you can enjoy reading.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

Details

    Author

    Welcome, blessed readers! This is the blog of the Medieval Monk, the alter ego of Dr Christopher Monk.

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    October 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

cookieassistant.com
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Welcome
  • What I do
  • Blog
  • Projects & Publications
  • Buy me a coffee
  • Contact Me