Why Fish on Fridays?
The tradition of abstaining from meat on Fridays, especially during Lent, is older than you might think, and it has nothing to do with the fishing industry.
As Lent approaches each year, the signs start appearing: Fish Fry Fridays at parishes across town, fast-food chains advertising their seafood specials, and the inevitable question from a coworker or child: "Why do Catholics eat fish on Fridays?"
The short answer is that we don't have to eat fish. We simply abstain from meat. Fish happens to be what's left.
But the deeper answer is worth sitting with.
Friday and the Cross
Every Friday of the year, not just during Lent, is a day of penance for Catholics. This goes back to the earliest days of the Church. Friday is the day Christ died. Sunday is the day of Resurrection, and so we feast. Friday is the day of the Cross, and so we fast (or at least, we do something to mark the day as different).
During Lent, the Church asks us specifically to abstain from meat on Fridays. Outside of Lent, the bishops of the United States allow us to substitute another form of penance, an extra prayer, an act of charity, giving up dessert. But the invitation to make Friday mean something remains all year long.
Why Meat?
In the ancient world, meat from warm-blooded animals, beef, pork, chicken, was the food of celebration. You slaughtered the fattened calf for a wedding, a homecoming, a feast. Meat meant joy.
Fish, by contrast, was common. It was what the poor ate. It was simple, humble, ordinary.
So the tradition wasn't really "eat fish on Friday." It was "don't feast on Friday." Don't celebrate as if nothing happened on this day. The Cross happened. Let your table reflect that.
The Symbol of the Fish
There's another layer here, too. The fish has been a Christian symbol since the days of the catacombs. The Greek word for fish, ichthys, forms an acronym: Iesous Christos, Theou Yios, Soter (Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior). Early Christians used the fish as a secret sign to identify one another during times of persecution.
And of course, Jesus called his apostles to be "fishers of men." He multiplied loaves and fishes to feed the crowds. After the Resurrection, he cooked fish for the disciples on the shore.
Fish, in the Christian imagination, has always pointed to something more.
The Spirit of the Thing
Here's where honesty is required. In our time, a fast-food burger is cheap and a lobster dinner is a luxury. If we avoid the burger but treat ourselves to an expensive seafood platter, we've followed the letter of the law while wandering from its spirit.
The point was never to find the most delicious loophole. The point was to create a small space of sacrifice, something given up, something that costs us, so that we remember. So that Friday feels different from Thursday.
A simple meal. A moment of hunger. A turning of the heart toward the One who gave everything.
An Invitation
This Lent, when you sit down to your Friday meal, whether it's a fish sandwich, a bowl of soup, or just eggs and toast, let the simplicity of it be a prayer. Let it remind you that every Friday, all year long, the Church invites us to remember the Cross.
Not as a burden. As a gift. A weekly invitation to die to something small, so that we might rise with Christ to something greater.