Is Friday in the Octave of Easter a Penitential day?

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Since all the masses this week are based on Easter Sunday, as is the LOTHs, every day this week is another celebration of the resurrection on Easter morning.

So, if we assume that all Catholics perform some form of penance on every Friday (yeah, that happens), are we dispensed from giving up meat, or whatever we have chose to do on this day?

I’m sure there will be opinions on both sides, both having good arguments (I can argue either way). Is there any documents dealing with this question?
 
Evan said:
Since all the masses this week are based on Easter Sunday, as is the LOTHs, every day this week is another celebration of the resurrection on Easter morning.

So, if we assume that all Catholics perform some form of penance on every Friday (yeah, that happens), are we dispensed from giving up meat, or whatever we have chose to do on this day?

I’m sure there will be opinions on both sides, both having good arguments (I can argue either way). Is there any documents dealing with this question?
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Great question.

I was wondering about this today, as I am abstaining. Then I wondered whether I should be abstaining during the octave of Easter.
 
During the Octave of Easter every day, including Friday, is a solemnity.
 
Not only do I think that one is permitted to not abstain on Easter Friday, but I’d even go so far as to say one ought not to.
 
Code of Canon Law:
Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday.
General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar:
24. The first eight days of the Easter season make up the octave of Easter and are celebrated as solemnities of the Lord.
Ergo, this Friday is not a day of abstinence.
 
MarkThompson said:
Code of Canon Law:
Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday.
General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar:
24. The first eight days of the Easter season make up the octave of Easter and are celebrated as solemnities of the Lord.
Ergo, this Friday is not a day of abstinence.
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Great. This is EXACTLY what I was looking for!!!

Thanks
 
Correct. Friday of the Octave of Easter is never a day of abstinence.
 
TrueLight said:
Great question.

I was wondering about this today, as I am abstaining. Then I wondered whether I should be abstaining during the octave of Easter.
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I hope you didn’t. Friday after Easter and Christmas are, what I call, cheat days 😃 👍
 
ConstantineTG said:
I hope you didn’t. Friday after Easter and Christmas are, what I call, cheat days 😃 👍
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I think you look at it incorrectly. We have a duty to do penance when penance is called for, but we also have a duty to celebrate and rejoice when celebration and rejoicing are called for.

It wouldn’t be wrong to abstain from meat–Catholics can be vegetarians or avoid meat on whatever days they want–but it would be wrong to fail make a day celebratory when the day has been set aside for universal celebration.

I think this is something Jews understand better than Catholics. Jews count rejoicing with those who rejoice as a mitzvah, a postive act required by God. We don’t focus so much on that kind of virtuous acts, in spite of their importance: I mean, we tend to realize the positive virtue in burying the dead more than the positive virtue in rejoicing with a bride and groom.

IMHO, we tend to look at the celebration of our high holy days more as something we are “allowed” to do, as if it were a reward for the self-denial we practiced during Lent, rather looking at the rejoicing and thanksgiving of the Easter season as also being positive acts of virtue that are meant to bring us closer to God, too.
 
EasterJoy said:
I think you look at it incorrectly. We have a duty to do penance when penance is called for, but we also have a duty to celebrate and rejoice when celebration and rejoicing are called for.

It wouldn’t be wrong to abstain from meat–Catholics can be vegetarians or avoid meat on whatever days they want–but it would be wrong to fail make a day celebratory when the day has been set aside for universal celebration.

I think this is something Jews understand better than Catholics. Jews count rejoicing with those who rejoice as a mitzvah, a postive act required by God. We don’t focus so much on that kind of virtuous acts, in spite of their importance: I mean, we tend to realize the positive virtue in burying the dead more than the positive virtue in rejoicing with a bride and groom.

IMHO, we tend to look at the celebration of our high holy days more as something we are “allowed” to do, as if it were a reward for the self-denial we practiced during Lent, rather looking at the rejoicing and thanksgiving of the Easter season as also being positive acts of virtue that are meant to bring us closer to God, too.
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Of course I do see it as a reward. It reminds me of the reward of heaven. Fasting reminds me of the deprivation of God in my soul because of sin. Feasting on the other hand reminds me that God is a God of abundance. His love and mercy have no end. The cycle of fasts and feasts reminds me of the journey I need to go through the earth, and the reward that comes to those who faithfully make well on it to the end.
 
ConstantineTG said:
Of course I do see it as a reward. It reminds me of the reward of heaven. Fasting reminds me of the deprivation of God in my soul because of sin. Feasting on the other hand reminds me that God is a God of abundance. His love and mercy have no end. The cycle of fasts and feasts reminds me of the journey I need to go through the earth, and the reward that comes to those who faithfully make well on it to the end.
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Sorry…I didn’t mean to say we can’t look at it as a reward in any sense. I meant that we ought not give the universal celebrations of the Church a short shrift any more than the universal penances. I meant that to celebrate a solemnity ought not be looked at as “cheating”; it is intended to be an indespensible part of the prescription for this vale of tears.

It would be like running intervals in training as a runner and thinking that it was “cheating” not to take a recovery time in-between sets. The recovery time is a necessary part of the training, not “cheating”.
 
ConstantineTG said:
I hope you didn’t. Friday after Easter and Christmas are, what I call, cheat days 😃 👍
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One can argue the Friday after Christmas. Unlike the Easter octave, which pre-empts all other feasts (meaning that no others may be celebrated), the octave of Christmas as a whole is not similarly described as a solemnity, nor as pre-empting other feasts. The Christmas triduum of feasts (St. Stephen, St. John, Holy Innocents) immediately follows Christmas Day, and then there are two memorials in there unrelated to Christmas, those of St. Thomas Becket and St. Sylvester.

Now, after Easter season ends we have the solemnity of the Sared Heart (15 June this year) on a Friday. And this year the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul (29 June) falls on a Friday, two weeks later. Lots of “cheat days” coming up!
 
Chatter163 said:
One can argue the Friday after Christmas. Unlike the Easter octave, which pre-empts all other feasts (meaning that no others may be celebrated), the octave of Christmas as a whole is not similarly described as a solemnity, nor as pre-empting other feasts. The Christmas triduum of feasts (St. Stephen, St. John, Holy Innocents) immediately follows Christmas Day, and then there are two memorials in there unrelated to Christmas, those of St. Thomas Becket and St. Sylvester.

Now, after Easter season ends we have the solemnity of the Sared Heart (15 June this year) on a Friday. And this year the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul (29 June) falls on a Friday, two weeks later. Lots of “cheat days” coming up!
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You are right about the Friday after Christmas! The days within the Octave of Christmas are not solemnities. Last year, the Feast of the Holy Family was on Friday of the Octave of Christmas (since there was no Sunday in the Octave), but that feast is not a solemnity, either.

It isn’t really arguable. Canon law specifies “Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday.”

Either you believe the actions of the episcopal conference of the United States has made Friday abstinence from meat non-obligatory outside of Lent, or else the Friday of the Octave of Christmas is a day of abstinence, like any other Friday outside of Lent on which there is no solemnity.

Thank you, that was news to me!
 
Chatter163 said:
One can argue the Friday after Christmas. Unlike the Easter octave, which pre-empts all other feasts (meaning that no others may be celebrated), the octave of Christmas as a whole is not similarly described as a solemnity, nor as pre-empting other feasts. The Christmas triduum of feasts (St. Stephen, St. John, Holy Innocents) immediately follows Christmas Day, and then there are two memorials in there unrelated to Christmas, those of St. Thomas Becket and St. Sylvester.

Now, after Easter season ends we have the solemnity of the Sared Heart (15 June this year) on a Friday. And this year the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul (29 June) falls on a Friday, two weeks later. Lots of “cheat days” coming up!
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ConstantineTG is Eastern Catholic, and for Eastern Catholics, the Friday in the Octave of Christmas is NOT a day of fasting.
 
Chatter163 said:
One can argue the Friday after Christmas. Unlike the Easter octave, which pre-empts all other feasts (meaning that no others may be celebrated), the octave of Christmas as a whole is not similarly described as a solemnity, nor as pre-empting other feasts. The Christmas triduum of feasts (St. Stephen, St. John, Holy Innocents) immediately follows Christmas Day, and then there are two memorials in there unrelated to Christmas, those of St. Thomas Becket and St. Sylvester.

Now, after Easter season ends we have the solemnity of the Sared Heart (15 June this year) on a Friday. And this year the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul (29 June) falls on a Friday, two weeks later. Lots of “cheat days” coming up!
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Well, as an Eastern Catholic, the days after Pentecost until the day before the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul is called the Apostle’s Fast. So even if I do get to “cheat” on those Fridays, I still have plenty of fasting ahead of me 😉

Also for Eastern Catholics, days prior to Feast Days are days of Great Fasting. So like January 6 which is the Theophany in the Eastern Church (or Epiphany in the West) is a Friday this year and thus a day of no fasting, January 5 is a day of Great Fasting anyway because it is a day prior to a Great Feast.
 
RyanBlack said:
ConstantineTG is Eastern Catholic, and for Eastern Catholics, the Friday in the Octave of Christmas is NOT a day of fasting.
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Yes, and we do have a host of celebrations in that Octave as well similar to the East. We have the Synaxis of the Theotokos, Feast of St. Stephen, etc. Its not like those days are just the Octave of the Nativity.
 
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