They are all fish — sort of
What do muskrats, alligators, capybaras, beavers, skunk-headed coots, puffins and the barnacle geese have in common?
I think I told this riddle wrong.
At various times the Catholic church has decided that each of those animals; three mammals, a reptile, and three birds, is a fish. But only for the purposes of eating them. On Fridays. During Lent.
Lent is part of a christian religious observance that focuses on personal sacrifice. It takes place each year and corresponds to the 40 days and nights that Jesus fasted prior to being crucified. The way Lent is observed is by people giving up something as a symbol of sacrifice. Lent starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter.
Beyond making personal sacrifice by giving up like chocolate, soda, or swearing, many also give up meat. But not all kinds of meat.
Both the Jewish tradition and the Greek Bible (New Testament) make distinctions between different types of meat. In both cases fish is distinguished from other types of meat, like mammals and birds. Because of this, fish flesh, is not on the banned list for Lent (and Fridays for Catholics).
The problem is that giving up meat during Lent is problematic because there are not a lot of fish, and that could make the residents protein deprived if they removed their typical meat from their diet.
As a solution, religious officials have declared other aquatic organisms as acceptable…with the reasoning being based on the fact that because they live in water, they are basically fish.
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This raises the question: why just these animals and not flamingos or otters or any of the many other aquatic animals? This is just the author’s speculation, but I think it is because these are the only animals that tasted good enough to ask the Catholic church to approve.
Photo credits:
Rene Rauschenberger — Alligator
annalu060 from Pixabay — Capybara
FirstThings.com — Barnacle Goose
TheFisheriesBlog.com — Muskrat, Beaver, Puffin, Skunk-Headed Coot
