The reason why millions of people choose to eat fish over meat on Good Friday

15.04.2022 - 18:07 / dailyrecord.co.uk

Good Friday is an Easter tradition that is followed by millions of people across the globe.

It is a day that marks the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, before Easter Sunday marks his subsequent resurrection.

And it is for this reason that many people observing Good Friday eat fish instead of meat, the Mirror reports.

It is believed that Jesus suffered and died on the cross on a Friday - Christians during the early says set aside this day to remember this and ‘unite their suffering’.

This resulted in the church marking every Friday as ‘Good Friday, where people remember the passion by offering ‘penance’.

Meat was seen as a worthy sacrifice as it was linked with feasts and celebrations.

In ancient cultures meat was seen as a delicacy and "the fattened calf" wasn't slaughtered unless there was something to celebrate.

Fridays were seen as a day of penance so eating meat on a Friday to "celebrate" the death of Jesus didn't sit well with the Church.

So why is fish not seen as meat?

The Church law specifically said "land animals".

"Abstinence laws consider that meat comes only from animals such as chickens, cows, sheep or pigs — all of which live on land. Birds are also considered meat."

Fish aren't seen as the same classification.

The distinction is mostly down to the Latin where the word used for meat is carnis, which means 'animal flesh'.

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