Sunday, February 18, 2024

Carnival

I was a little late setting off for prison this morning so I suppose it was no surprise that as I parked the car I realised I'd forgotten ID. 

In the close to twenty years I've been going in I've only forgotten maybe once before. It was too late to go home and get it so I resigned myself to being turned away.

I went in, the officer asked my name, patted me down, and took me over to the chapel, me thanking God under my breath as we went.

Other members of the team were already in and said they'd been asked for identification before anything, so something or someone was on my side.

A good service too, for the First Sunday in Lent. The chaplain is a vicar so we followed a service sheet, and she spoke well about temptation. 

And I learned something I never knew. The chaplain was explaining that strict Catholics used to give up meat and dairy products for Lent, "which is where the word carnival comes from: carnevale with carne meaning meat and vale meaning goodbye in Latin."



11 comments:

Boud said...

"The chaplain is a vicar so we followed a service sheet". Can you explain what this means?

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Isn't language marvelous!

Marie Smith said...

I didn’t know where carnival came from. Thank you for sharing!

acorn hollow said...

Very interesting about the word carnival.
Cathy

Ann said...

I grew up in a Catholic home so I'm very familiar with not eating meat during lent. Actually it was just Fridays during lent. I didn't know about the words though. Interestig.

Abby said...

Well now I'VE learned something cool!

Boud said...

That version of the meaning, there are quite a few theories, some unrelated to meat, is known charitably as folk etymology!

Liz Hinds said...

Boud, as an Anglican she's more used to leading set services than the informal services some of us are used to. It might be folk etymology but there's a good argument for it.

Glad I wasn't the only one not to have heard that theory behind the word.

Terra said...

I had not heard the meaning behind carnival. My church is nondenominational so quite free form.

Anonymous said...

And why is it called Lent? What was borrowed?

Cop Car said...

After reading the first paragraph of this posting, I understand how the KGB became intereted.