Why Do Catholics Eat Fish on Fridays?
A common Lenten tradition in many Roman Catholic communities is the Friday fish fry: deep-fried fish dinners usually served with chips (or âfrench fries,â if you must). Although the tradition has some basis in doctrine, technically the Roman Catholic Church does not require its followers to eat fish on Fridays during Lent but only that they abstain from eating meat. So why do Catholics eat fish on Fridays?
Like most things in Christianity, it has to do with Jesus.
Lenten fasting and abstinence
In the Christian calendar, Lent is the period of penance before Easter, the feast celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his Crucifixion. In preparation for Easter, Christians are expected to undergo fasting and abstinence in imitation of Jesusâ fasting in the wilderness before he began his public ministry. In Western churches (including Roman Catholicism), the penitential period begins on Ash Wednesday, six and a half weeks before Easter. Since Sundays are excluded from the fasting requirement, the total amount of time spent fasting is 40 days.
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Catholics are also required to abstain from meat on certain daysâspecifically, on Ash Wednesday and Fridays. There are some exceptions. For one, only people over the age of 14 are required to abstain, and fasting is obligatory only for people between ages 18 and 59. Further, according to the churchâs Code of Canon Law, abstinence is required on all Fridays year-round, except for solemn feast days. However, this rule was relaxed in the mid-20th century after the modernizing changes of the Second Vatican Council (1962â65). By papal decree, bishops were granted the power to decide if the dioceses they oversee should require Friday abstinence year-round or encourage other forms of penitence such as prayer or charity work instead. This is how Friday fish dinners became primarily a Lenten tradition, even if the year-round rule is still âon the books.â
Why fish and why Friday?
But why fish? After all, church law makes no reference to what type of food should be eaten in place of meat. Catholics may just as well opt for meatless foods such as cheese pizza, bean soup, vegetable stew, egg-based dishes, or salads.
Several theories have been proposed. Scholars note that the codeâs original Latin uses the term carnis, which is interpreted as meat from warm-blooded animals or from animals that walk on the ground. Therefore, the flesh of cold-blooded animals or those that live in water is acceptable to eat. In the 15th century Augustinian priest John Mirk claimed that this distinction stems from the biblical story of the Fall of Humankind and original sin: In response to Adam and Eveâs transgression in the Garden of Eden, God cursed the earth and land but not the water.
Another theory notes that on the sixth day of Creation (i.e., Friday) God created livestock. By abstaining from eating such animals as pigs, sheep, chickens, and cows on this day (thus, sparing those animalsâ lives), Catholics are imitating Christ by practicing an act of mercy and making a spiritual sacrifice. In addition, Friday was the day of Christâs death, which is solemnly observed as Good Friday in the Christian calendar.
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During Lent Catholics are also encouraged to practice almsgiving along with fasting and abstinence. The charity Catholic Relief Services (CRS) combined these practices into the CRS Rice Bowl campaign, which asks participants to collect the money they would have spent on meals in a small rice bowl. Then the money is donated to CRS for programs to alleviate world hunger.
Others point to the symbolism of the fish in Christian tradition, particularly the story of Jesusâ miraculously feeding 5,000 people by multiplying five loaves and two fish and his calling his Apostles to be âfishers of men.â
The myth of the fish-promoting pope
Among the false reasons often given is a story that claims a medieval pope made it mandatory to eat fish on Fridays in an attempt to boost the Italian fishing industry. However, scholars have found no historical evidence to support this theory. Tellingly, the name of this alleged fish-promoting pontiff has never been supplied. Moreover, the tradition of fasting and abstinence dates to the 1st century ce, not the Middle Ages.