The Lent of my childhood in 1980s Ireland was driven by a complex set of rules and norms, some of which I’ve listed below:
1. “Giving up sweets” had many interpretations. It could in fact exclude crisps, cake and in extreme cases, even chocolate. And chocolatey sweets, like Minstrels, which were technically deemed to be chocolate (at a stretch).
2. Lent could reignite the “is it a biscuit or is it a bar” KitKat debate – I haven’t forgotten an eight-year-old classmate gorging on KitKat “biscuits” while the rest of us looked forlornly at our corned beef sandwiches.
3. Popcorn was suddenly a health food.
4. All sweets and chocolate received during lent were stored in an individual box by each child – the aim being to build up as big a stash as possible for Easter Sunday consumption. “Giving up” was actually just “delaying”
5. Sundays were a break from lent in some houses. The box of treats that had been building up all week comes in handy on Sundays.
6. St Patrick’s Day was a break from lent in every house. It could happen that the entire stash-box was emptied, and March 18th meant a re-start from scratch.
7. Siblings had to end up with the exact same contents in the stash-boxes on Easter Sunday or there would be WAR.
8. Someone always said “You know what I’m giving up for Lent? Giving up things”
Which ones did I miss?
Brings back memories ;0) You forgot to mention how sick you feel the day after St Patrick’s Day due to all the gorging ;0)
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You see, I didn’t like my stash to go down too much, so I was quite conservative in my St Patrick’s Day consumption. As mentioned on another thread tonight, I was a bit of a nerd about the whole thing 🙂
One of my daughters didn’t agree with lent, but had to join in, until I discovered she was digging into her stash whenever she wanted to. Stash was moved to a safe place that lent. I was always a disaster in lent and I am even worse now.
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Smart daughter – I like it!
All of these – and I wasn’t even around in the 1980s. And Wagon Wheels were DEFINITELY biscuits. The faces of misery at March birthday parties, all hoarding for the stash box (only some took it as a “special occasion day off”).
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Lisa, nobody wasn’t around in the 80s, right, right?
I clearly meant the 1880s, don’t worry 😛
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