In 1812, during the capture of Moscow by Napoleon’s army, Count Mikhail Alexandrovich Mengden, a major general of the imperial army, was captured and transported to France with Kondrat, the garden cook. There they settled in the town of Dre in Brittany. In this Dre, a major general and a cook lived with a certain woman until the Russian army entered Paris. Count Mengden, who lived with a French stewardess, tried to observe Russian customs, and the cook Kondrat helped him as best he could.
Since the count was Orthodox, he held a post. The cook was preparing the mushrooms he had gathered from the nearby forest for the count. One day, a French woman who rented a corner for themselves saw the prisoners frying mushrooms in a pan. She shouted: “Qu’elle enverrait chercher le commissar de police; prisoners russes veuillent s’empoisonner! (“I’ll call the police, Russian prisoners want to poison themselves!”). Seeing that the Russians ate mushrooms and for some reason did not die, he corrected himself: “Il n’y a que les estomacs des sauvages qui supportent un pareil mange” (“Only the stomachs of savages can withstand such food”).
And indeed the Russian person does not care at all. The stomach, which has been accustomed to fasting for many years, cannot stand such things. Think about it: a Russian count of German descent, who had to leave his homeland, while receiving financial aid and having his own cook at his disposal, fasts no matter what. No one will ask him, no one will condemn him, no one will even know. And he observes Lent.
Since this is an important part of the Russian identity – regular abstinence, Maslenitsa, a time when everything is allowed – it is necessary to follow the period of tireless fun, which is carnival. They say that Ivan Andreevich Krylov could eat thirty half-buckwheat pancakes with caviar at a time. The crepes were finger thick. Isn’t this overconsumption that needs to be balanced with a religious diet?
As you know, fasting comes from the gospel story where Christ went into the desert and was left hungry and alone for forty days, tempted by the devil who promised to turn the stones into bread.
The example of God is of course a role model for every believer, but more figuratively and culturally. A person, for example, even a very religious person, must go to work and, as a rule, feed his family. It’s hard to do this on an empty stomach. Therefore, fasting traditions have changed many times over the centuries. And even in Catholic Italy you don’t see a “lentil menu” in restaurants, they don’t keep fasting in the usual sense for us. An alumnus of the Pontifical College of Divinity in Rome said that Italians, even the most devout, might try to spend a little less on food during fasting to donate a little more to those in need. At the same time, even monks do not stop smoking or even drinking wine. On the other hand, what is the greater sin for an Italian – not fasting or refusing wine?
In Orthodoxy, everything is a little stricter. There is a monastic ordinance in which dry food – that is, fruits, vegetables, nuts – is given almost every day. Lean. Monks, on the other hand, have nothing to do but pray in the broad sense of the word. You can probably survive here by eating nuts and bananas.
But let’s say that for everyone else in the cafe, Lenten menus appear with the start of Lenten. Why in a cafe – even in the dining room for religious deputies of the State Duma – a strange phrase – such menus exist. For some reason, people tend to be self-restrained in this tradition. From where?
I think there are several reasons.
First, each of us subconsciously feels guilty. After all, everyone is guilty of something. Therefore, he seeks penance. It means he has a conscience. Therefore, before starting the fast, everyone, even the unbelievers, asks each other for forgiveness. Not because they are to blame for each other, but because they are conceptually generally guilty. And it seems that if you limit yourself to one thing, then you will punish yourself for something, albeit a little, but you will atone for your guilt.
Secondly, people feel spring, the real beginning of which, as a rule, coincides with Easter, the holiday of rebirth into a new life. And you have to prepare for a new life. Some also call it “lose weight for the summer”. Just as the Renaissance followed the Dark Ages, the Renaissance followed moderation.
And third, this is compensation for the seventy years of godlessness of the Soviet regime. Their rituals of demonstrations and burning of churches turned out to be unnatural and destructive. But the completely optional Great Lent or Easter procession continues to attract people. Because life must conquer both difficulties and suffering, death and twilight.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.