EasterLent is soon to be upon us. While now a fairly feeble force in this country, in previous ages Lent rivalled Ramadan for its emphasis on abstinence. Christians were not to eat animal products of any kind (hence Falstaff having sold his soul for eggs in Henry IV) throughout the six week period. This is the point of pancake day, which would use any eggs up to that point, and also explains the exchange of eggs again at Easter itself.
Born from the early christian belief that abstinence was in itself a virtue. That self denial (and on occasion even self-neglect or harm) brought one closer to god. Hence the hermetic tradition..
In more recent times it has become usual for people, if they give up anything at all, to give up small indulgences, such as chocolate bars or sugar in their tea. I even read a complaint last year in a national newspaper that the current business of lent has nothing to do with God and has instead become a once a year health kick. I would argue that this is at least less self indulgent that expecting someone else to keep an eye on your health, which seems to be a general habit. Witness people who eat large quatities of fat and sugar in processed foods and then complain of the existence and proliferation of place like McDonalds because they don't have the willpower to resist them.
While I admit that there are too many adverts and too much opportunity to obtain terrible food (especially for children) there is undoubtedly something in our culture that encourages us to think it's our business to constantly indulge ourselves - buying cheaper coffee and meat because our 50p is more important than somebody else's quality of life, driving where we know we could walk almost as quickly, and consuming kitkats at every tea break - and someone elses business to protect us from the results of our actions. A little effort once a year to indulge less and take up that responsibilty for ourselves can do no harm. At the very worst we are merely substituting a protecting of the body for a saving of the soul. There is nothing unselfish about wanting to go to heaven rather than hell.
Although Rouseau and various other philosophists and navel-gazers have pointed out that the glow of virtue and self righteousness is in itself an indulgence it has to be noted that if you give money to charity, it matters very little to the people you have benefitted whether it was done purely selflessly or whether you did it to make yourself feel better (or indeed to save your soul)
One function of such festivals is to remind us how lucky we are. And we are lucky, we live in a largely disease-free society in a wealthy nation unlikely, at this point in history, to be invaded.
In closing, if you can learn that it is not your business to be self indulgent by practising on small pointless things such as chocolate and coffee, perhaps you might find you can abstain from larger more important ones such as adultery and theft and that can only benefit everyone.
