Lent 2013: 5 Things to Give Up For Lent

Culture

As many Christians and non-Christians are aware, the general masses prepare for the Easter celebration by sacrificing something they regularly enjoy for the Lent season.

Such sacrifices might be a luxury, a bad habit, a temptation, and the like. The following list is comprised of the five most popular things give up for Lent. There is a big chance that one of the items overlaps with what you were considering giving up this Lent season:

 

1. Chocolate

At least once in your life you’ve thought about giving up the savory existence that is chocolate. I did when I was 13 and was quite successful at resisting it until eating a Tootsie Roll, which I honestly did not know was chocolate at the time. Whatever your reasons may be for avoiding chocolate, perhaps it being to shrink your wasteline or battling your self-control, it is no walk in the park. This is especially true when the chocolate eggs and bunnies start coming out weeks before you are allowed to finally indulge.

2. Cigarettes and Alcohol

Might be a popular item to give up for Lent, but it is by far the toughest for those of legal drinking age. Giving up alcohol essentially means being less social, having less leisurely time after a long day at work, less meaningless sex and less pounding headaches.

Giving up alcohol can be the best and worst thing that happens to you: Resisting the temptation for a full 40  days would warrant drinks on me for the rest of the year. Similarly, kicking a nicotine addiction for that amount of time is equally as hard. If you are actually serious about quitting, or if your New Year’s resolution utterly failed, Lent is the time to enforce the sacrifice for real! Go with God.

3. Facebook 

Even just a few years ago, who would have thought that a social media website would end up on a list of things to give up? Is this a sign of generational pathetic-ness, that a website is tied to a Holy day? Perhaps.

But nevertheless, students' ability to stay off Facebook for 40 days would be monumenta  considering some cannot even avoid visiting Facebook in a 50-minute lecture. It might feel nice to reclaim your life and make better use of your free time rather than stalking your crush or former flame, uploading embarrassing pictures of your best friend, or obsessing over status updates of your every move.

4. Television (Including Netflix!)

The second biggest timesuck in mainstream America, television (and Netflix). Re-runs of old CW shows will never leave the Internet, nor will the horrible streaming videos on Netflix. They will be there after forty days. Study for that big test all day rather than taking breaks to watch Vampire Diaries. Spend time with friends and family instead of being glued to your screen. Giving up television/Netflix is a very positive thing.

5. Ah, the Ambiguous “Junk Food”

What constitutes junk food? For the purpose of what most of you are thinking, I will define it as sodas, fast food, bagged cheesy snacks, cookies, and all other things you eat when you’re not actually hungry. Your body and your energy level will thank you; they’ve always wanted fresh fruit or vegetables anyways.

Among the other popular things to give up for Lent include texting, gossiping, lying, cheating, guilty pleasures, and so forth that are so engrained in your habitual being.

While this article is in no way attempting to convert you to the Catholic faith (of which I am a part), the Lent/Easter season really is a time to look back at all the things you have as a result of Jesus’s sacrifice he made on behalf of all of us.