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| Goujons of Hake aka Cornish Fish Fingers - well, that's what the visiting kids were told they would be having for supper. |
The week before Easter is a high spot on the fishing calendar. Traditionally, Good Friday is a day of huge fish consumption in much of the Western world, especially those with significant Catholic populations.
Having done some research TtG has found as many reasons for the consumption of fish on Good Friday as there are species of fish landed on Newlyn market on an average day - loads. Most seem to centre around the need for some form of penance in the shape of abstinence or fasting - though those two are not the same nor mutually exclusive. Others include historical references that cite the high cost of red meat being prohibitive for many, making fish a viable alternative, to more religious ones on the grounds that preparing meat involves the letting of blood á la JC on the cross.
This fish-eating Good Friday thing is also a well known phenomenon across La Manche where the missus of Louis XIII (Marie Antionette, though it may have been Marie-Thérèse the missus of Louis XIV) actually said 'hake' not 'cake' and is oft mis-quoted.
Be it penance or pleasure, the eating fish is also permissible and indeed to be encouraged on every day of the year.