4 ms·
It was much more likely meant to mock the Christian tradition of eating fish (actually the point is, not eating meat, but then people naturally turned to fish)
by mustafa_pasi 5y ago
It was much more likely meant to mock the Christian tradition of eating fish (actually the point is, not eating meat, but then people naturally turned to fish) on Fridays (and for the hardcore ones also on Wednesdays).
This same Christian tradition has become a bit of a joke nowadays since fish is now more of a luxury and is more expensive and less accessible than meat, which is now super common and much cheaper.
- larsiusprime 5y agoWhat you're describing is the modern post-vatican II Catholic fasting tradition. If one follows specifically the Russian Orthodox fasting rules strictly, you'd be approximately vegan for half of the year (every wednesday and friday, as well as lent, apostle's fast, dormition fast, nativity fast, a few others sprinkled in, etc). On a conventional strict fast day (other than e.g. Clean Monday in lent where you eat nothing at all) you'd eat no meat, dairy, wine, or oil. Some of these fasting days (such as when a feast day happens to align on what would otherwise be a fast day) are loosened to be "fish days" when you are allowed to have fish (but not meat). So maybe it was intended to mock the Christian tradition of eating fish ... but like... unless the Thursday was during Lent or another major fasting period, if you weren't a monk you could already eat Fish that day? It doesn't seem too much like the Discordian tradition of eating Hot Dogs on Friday, as an attempt to roll up as many possible religious taboos at once (Halal, Kosher, Catholicism, and Bougies who are grossed out by hotdogs)
- krzyk 5y agoI doubt it was to mock. Former east block countries had supply issues with meat. My experience is from Poland where the Party was not only glad that Catholics don't eat meat on Fridays (and you are allowed to eat Fish, but if you don't have it you won't eat it) but also tried to introduce No Meat Monday. BTW. In 80ties (don't remember exactly when) each family was receiving paper slips that allowed to buy meat (you had to give also money beside the sleep) and some other high value merchandise. If you had children you were given more such slips for meat (and probably other items).
- ajsnigrutin 5y agoYep, food coupons. It wasn't so bad in yugoslavia, but we still had coupons for stuff like gasoline. We also had odd-even days, where you could only drive your car on odd or even days (depending on your licence plate - so every second day).
- dsego 5y agoThis odd-even thing always comes up as an example of how things were bad in socialism, yet everyone fails to mention the context of a global oil shortage and that other places had similar policies, like in the US for example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd%E2%80%93even_rationing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd%E2%80%93even_rationing
- tut-urut-utut 5y agoEven (West) Germany had these odd-even driving restrictions at the same time, so definitely not related to communism.
- objectivetruth 5y agoFrom the article: > Another opinion holds that Thursday was chosen as a poke in the eye to Orthodox believers, since their fasting days are traditionally Wednesday and Friday (official doctrine did all it could to encourage atheism).
- Grustaf 5y agoThe choice of day was probably related to this, but as mentioned above, eating fish on Fridays is not an Orthodox tradition.
- boringg 5y agoHas anyone done a study on the outcomes of people who follow that strict diet compared to the general populations. It would be mildly interesting.