During Lent, some college students are looking anew at personal sacrifice and giving up things they enjoy as fellow classmates take notice.
“I gave up meat because that’s what is traditionally given up. I bought six containers of peanut butter to keep my protein up until spring break,” said Ernest Zezze Stonehill College Class of 2014, a Unitarian raised Catholic. “During the fast itself you feel good, you feel like you’re accomplishing something, I do it to challenge myself and my abilities.”
“I gave up soda for Lent, I’m trying to reduce my high-fructose corn syrup intake,” said Richard Valeri Stonehill Class of 2013. “I gave up dessert because I felt like it was something I would miss,” said Kiera McNamara Stonehill Class of 2014.
“I gave up soda. It's not something that I have all of the time, but it's something that I think I can certainly go without for 40 days,” said Brendan O’Connor Stonehill Class of 2014.
Some students find it difficult to give something up while dealing with a heavy scholastic workload. “While I think that it's a good thing to give something dear to you up for lent, as a college student, I hardly have any time for myself as it is. Any time I do have, I want to enjoy it,” said John Broderick a sophomore at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y. "I'm a confirmed Roman Catholic, but I use their teachings more as guidelines rather than set in stone."
A modern understanding of the Lenten season focuses on Easter, the upcoming passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“Lent has been part of the Christian tradition for centuries and recreates the forty days Jesus spent in the desert to prepare himself. Recreating in prayer and remembrance, the death of Christ who died for us.” said the Rev. Richard Gribble, a Catholic priest and religious studies professor at Stonehill College.
The traditions of observing a preparation period and self-sacrifice are rooted in other ancient religious practices that competed with early Christianity, Nate DesRosiers, professor of religious studies at Stonehill College, said.
“Greek cults had rituals that had self sacrifice as preparation. In actuality 90 percent (of the ancient population) could never afford a big sacrifice (animal sacrifice) and instead would give something personal to God,” said DesRosiers.
Personal sacrifice for the sake of God was a common practice in ancient times. Lent is rooted in the early church when Christian traditions were not fully formed.
“There is an understanding of some sort of preparation before Easter, more prayer and thought” said DesRosiers, “Some people (in ancient times) observed either forty days or forty hour segments(of fast), it varied from place to place.”
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten period. “The concept of ashes, are that we are created from nothing and return to dust. Ashes remind us of our mortality” said Gribble.
Gribble said Ash Wednesday seemed to have an allure for the Catholic students at Stonehill College. “I celebrated Ash Wednesday in the dorms and the service was filled with students. Something deep down about the day brings people out to church. It’s significant because a lot are not Sunday going” Gribble said.
Lent is viewed differently by those outside the Catholic faith. “Wednesday afternoon I went to mass and got my ashes,” said Katie Finnell, a Stonehill graduate now a graduate student at Emerson. “That night I had class and had completely forgotten about my ashes. I was sitting in the newsroom, next to a big glass wall and two students walked by. One of them looked at me and said "Oh yeah, it's Ash Wednesday." And they proceeded to talk all about it as they walked down the hall, I was little surprised at their reaction since I was so used to going to a Catholic school where walking around with ashes on your head is completely normal.”
Non-Catholic students are sometimes surprised to see ashes. “There were only a few people on the street that had ashes, I didn’t even remember it was Ash Wednesday until I saw them” said Faye Haley, an Episcopalian and senior at Bishop Fenwick High School a Catholic school in Peabody, Mass.
Ryan McGrath, an atheist and sophomore at Boston College said Ash Wednesday is obvious. “It’s hard not to remember Ash Wednesday when there are people with ashes. It has a strange aesthetic to it, like everyone has a third eye looking directly at me.”
McGrath, raised Catholic, said around one third of the Boston College student body had ashes.
Lent doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. “It’s still a special season, but it is optional to give something up,” said Robert Jarrard, Stonehill Class of 2013, a Lutheran. “It’s supposedly based on more free will and is more of an act of faith if not imposed by a religion or society.”
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