A more serious reason is required to excuse oneself from Ash Wednesday and Good Friday fast and abstinence. And yes, chicken is considered meat. And none of the regulations mention fish. There is no rule that people should eat fish in Lent.
Also, on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all Fridays during Lent, adult Catholics over the age of 14 abstain from eating meat. During these days, it is not acceptable to eat lamb, chicken, beef, pork, ham, deer and most other meats. However, eggs, milk, fish, grains, and fruits and vegetables are all allowed.
According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, abstinence laws say meat is considered something that comes only from animals that live on land, like chicken, cows, sheep or pigs. Fish are considered a different category of animal.
Catholics fast from red meat or white meat, i.e. warm-blooded mammals or birds. Those under 14 and 65 or older are exempt from fasting.
This includes the meat from chickens, sheep, pigs, cows and other forms of livestock — any animal, really, that makes its home on land. This also includes birds. However, because fish make their home in the water, the Catholic Church does not consider fish a meat.
Since Jesus sacrificed his flesh for us on Good Friday, we refrain from eating flesh meat in his honor on Fridays. Flesh meat includes the meat of mammals and poultry, and the main foods that come under this heading are beef and pork, chicken and turkey.
Jainism. Jainism practices non-violence and has strict rules for the protection of all life. For this reason, they do not eat eggs, fish, meat or poultry.
However, moral theologians have traditionally taught that we should abstain from all animal-derived products (except foods such as gelatin, butter, cheese and eggs, which do not have any meat taste). Fish are a different category of animal.
No, neither the Church nor the Bible says that eating meat is a sin. In the book of Acts, St. Peter is instructed by God to slaughter and eat any animal (15:9-15). The Church asks us to abstain from eating meat on the Fridays of Lent as a penance, but that is not because eating meat is inherently sinful.
The only dietary restrictions specified for Christians in the New Testament are to "abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals" (Acts 15:29), teachings that the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen, preached for believers to follow.
Chicken: Chicken meat is high and protein and low in fat, which varies in white and dark meat. Boneless, skinless chicken breast meat is one of the only types of meat that doesn't contain saturated fat. A roasted chicken is one of life's simplest pleasures.
Here's why: meat was at one point considered an indulgence, so abstaining from meat on certain days is intended as a form of penance and a way for Christians to honor Jesus' sacrifice of his flesh on Good Friday. That means no meat from birds, cows, sheep, or pigs.
In 866 A.D., Pope Nicholas I made Friday abstinence from meat a universal rule of the church. By the 12th century, abstinence and fasting on Friday, for penance as well as in memorial of Christ's Passion, were common practices. Most Catholics were bound by the rules, even children as young as 12.
The law of abstinence prohibits eating the flesh, marrow and blood products of such animals and birds as constitute flesh meat. In earlier times the law of abstinence also forbade such foods that originated from such animals, such as milk, butter, cheese, eggs, lard and sauces made from animal fat.
Red meat refers to beef, veal, lamb, mutton, pork, goat and venison. It does not include chicken, turkey, goose, duck, game and rabbit.
According to Canon Law, Roman Catholics are required to abstain from meat (defined as all animal flesh and organs, excluding water animals) on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays of Lent including Good Friday.
As a Catholic, may I be cremated? Yes. In May 1963, the Vatican's Holy Office (now the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith) lifted the prohibition forbidding Catholics to choose cremation.
"Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Eating eggs is generally not considered an issue since they are not considered meat, and therefore many Catholics permit themselves to eat eggs during Lent. Some Catholics even abstain from meat and eggs on Fridays during Lent in order to practice a stricter form of the Catholic faith.
There is also a distinction made between dairy and eggs, with some churches not considering dairy to be “meat” while others do. Currently, the Catholic Church continues to treat eggs and milk products as non-meat items on fasting days.
Prohibited foods that may not be consumed in any form include all animals—and the products of animals—that do not chew the cud and do not have cloven hoofs (e.g., pigs and horses); fish without fins and scales; the blood of any animal; shellfish (e.g., clams, oysters, shrimp, crabs) and all other living creatures that ...
Zoroastrians considered the chicken sacred because it crowed before dawn, before the light appeared. And in Zoroastrian tradition, the coming of the light is a sign of good. So the chicken became associated with an awakening from physical, as well as spiritual, slumber.
Eastern religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, generally agree in their support of non-violence and a meatless lifestyle, i.e. vegetarianism (11).
Abstinence from meat on Fridays is done as a sacrifice by many Christians because they believe that on Good Friday, Jesus sacrificed his flesh for humanity. In Orthodox Christianity, in addition to fasting from food until sundown, the faithful are enjoined to abstain from sexual relations on Fridays as well.