It always struck me as peculiar that one would ostensibly go to Hell for eating beans-and-franks on Friday, but chowing-down on shrimp cocktail and a lobster was no problem whatsoever.
LOL - well, "The Lord works His Will in Wond'rous Ways!"
For the record, I've given up my favorite food: peanut butter.
Well, the idea was a historical one about sacrifice.
However, nowadays when one can have "lobster ravioli" or "orange roughy francaise", I would agree that that doesn't qualify as much of a sacrifice.
Although I can assure you that while I was growing up, my mother wasn't making shrimp cocktail and lobster thermador on Friday nights. Fridays most often meant fish sticks, and that certainly qualified as a sacrifice in my book. We were ecstatic when my parents were too tired on a Friday and we got a cheese pizza.
Keep in mind that pre-Vatican II meat was not permitted on Fridays throughout the year, and no meat was consumed at all during lent. One reason many European monasteries began to domesticate rabbits is that the young were considered fish until their hair grew in. Another interesting tidbit is that Spanish explorers to the New World considered manatee, "the fish that tasted like beef."
i thought shellfish weren't supposed to be consumed at all?