Behold the Lenten Hangover

CHENNAI: Too much of anything eventually leaves you with a hangover. As the devoted few from around the city, who have actually managed to keep up their temporary vow of abstinence, have the end in their sights, it stands to reason that there will be a hangover, one way or the other. For those who came in late, Lent is the period of 40 days (six weeks minus the Sundays) between Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, when some Christians practise fasting or give up some luxuries as a sacrifice of sorts.While there are many youngsters who attempt to give up some form of pleasure during this period, quite a few end up breaking it mid way. But for those who did manage it, there were surprising gains — other than the spiritual satisfaction, which is a given.Says Sophia Sathiyaraj, who works with an IT major as a HR Manager, “Till four years ago, every time my mother used to enforce our no-meat lent season, I hated it. I used to wait to get out of the house so that I could have some meat,” recalls Sophia, who has always battled being “heavy”. After she got married, she thought she had got her freedom from fasting, until last year when her husband asked her to observe the fast with him, “I did it grudgingly but at the end I lost 6.5 kgs,” she adds with glee. “No exercise has ever done that for me, so every year I found that it worked well for my family and my figure to go vegetarian during Lent,” she says.She’s not alone. Plenty of people in the 16-32 age group that City Express spoke to, secretly agreed that while “penance to respect Christ’s sacrifice” was the primary reason for fasting, the fact that it helped with their waistlines, was an “attractive  incentive”.Herein lies one type of hangover. “My son is already very thin. This year, not only did he take up Lenten fasting of his own, he also suggested a vegan diet. I was very happy initially. But now that it is over, he has suggested that we as a family continue vegan eating even on Easter and through the year,” rants a dismayed Jenny Matthews, a housewife from Perambur who has three children. Luckily for her, her husband and other children have insisted on biriyani for Easter.The other indulgence that most people go without, with much difficulty is forfeiting alcohol and cigarettes. “This is the first time that I have tried going without both during Lent,” says Joseph Ravindran*, a CA in the making, “It was really difficult, but the one thought that kept me going was that at the end of it would be one completely liquor-full weekend to make up for it,” he adds. Incidentally, this is something that every person who stays off the bottle and wears a nicotine patch looks forward to once Lent is done with. The fact that most watering holes in the city have an ‘Easter Night’ lined up on Saturday and all hotels have a beer-and-buffet brunch on Sunday, is testament to the fact that there will be a few hangovers here too.None of this can be taken as blasphemy, as most of them are quick to say. “Perhaps the elders at Church and the Puritans will not see it this way, but remember that fasting during Lent is not something the Bible asked us to do,” says Sharon Immanuel, who works with a Christian NGO, “Christ fasted and prayed in the wilderness for 40 days, but we were never asked to do so. Anyone who fasts or abstains does so of their own accord. Whether is it for one day or for 40 days, it is their choice,” she concludes, thoughtfully.