What's the origin of eating fish on Friday?

Many year ago the fisherman discovered how to catch more fish and were unable to sell there extra fish and wanted to week end off. It just so happened that the fisherman's wife was the mistress of the on going pope. So she held back her favours to the pope until he made it a rule for all those in his kingdom eat fish on Friday. So it is written. This question is about faith and belief not fact or imperial thinking and needs no close examination. Sort of like religion. Its all about make believe.

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"Fish on Friday"
This is what the Code of Canon Law of 1983 says about the matter:
Canon 1251.
Abstinence from meat, or another food according to the prescriptions of the Conference of Bishops, is to be observed on all Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
From: http://www.stthomasirondequoit.com/DeaconBench/id583.htm


In the first century, Jews fasted on Mondays and Thursdays. The original Christians were all Jewish and were used to the fasting as a spiritual discipline. They moved the fast days to Wednesdays and Fridays, because Judas engineered Jesus' arrest on a Wednesday and Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Most often that fast took the form of avoiding meat in the diet. In those days, meat was a luxury food. You either had to buy it in a market or you had to own enough land to keep cattle. On the other hand, anyone could grow vegetables or forage for them, and anyone could catch a fish in a lake or a stream. You could buy better fish and vegetables, but the point is that you could eat without money if you were poor. So meat was rich people's food and fish was poor people's food. That is why the most common form of fasting was to omit meat and eat fish.
From: http://www.kencollins.com/question-38.htm


"Why fish on Friday" By Harry Hanson
How did the “Fish on Fridays” during Lent come into being? I viewed the book “How did it begin?” by R. Brasch, who has studied the origins of superstitions, customs and strange habits of people.

The book stated unlike Fridays appearing as doom and gloom days to early Christians, pagan societies prior to Christendom heralded the day of the week as being special. Named after Freya, goddess of love, it was a special day for festive marriages.

However, Friday became a frowned upon day long before “TGIF” (Thank God it’s Friday) became accepted at water spigot meetings. For instance, it has been suggested that Adam and Eve ate their forbidden fruit, apples, on a Friday and died on a Friday.

Of course, it was on a Friday that Jesus died on the cross. The result of course, was that Friday always became a day of remembrance and memorial of that fateful day in history just as “Sundays became a little Easter.”

It became a custom never to start a new task or begin a journey on a Friday. Sailors refused to leave port on such days. In France it was found fewer people took bus or train rides on this day of the week.

In attempting to pooh-pooh this theory, the British navy laid keel to a ship named H.M.S. Friday on a Friday. The launch date was set for a Friday with the ship’s captain Joe Friday. On her maiden voyage, beginning on a Friday, nothing was heard thereafter concerning ship or crew.

Friday a day of penitence for Catholics

In memory of the Crucifixion of Christ, Friday became a day of abstinence, a day of penitence for its followers. Anyone over age fourteen was expected to abstain even though there is nothing in the scriptures to prescribe it.

While Jews fast for 24 hours as a Day of Atonement, and Moslems do likewise during the month of Ramadan (they are permitted to eat during nighttime hours), Catholics have recognized Fridays as meatless days to coincide with the Hebrew tradition of not eating meat on days of sorrow.

Why fish? One day of the week was to be set aside by early Christians to link themselves with the tragic death of Jesus. But, it also could have dated back to the pagan world of Aphrodite, the goddess of the sea. “The eating of fish promoted fruitfulness” it was believed.

Conversely, in ancient days it was believed that eating meat was commensurate with manliness, and refraining from doing lessened any lust. Hence, fish became a substitute.

It was more likely that political and economic reasons reinforced Friday as a day for eating fish. It would help the fishing industry at the time. Likewise, because fish was cheaper than meat so that poorer folk didn’t feel different when purchasing fish at the market. Finally, by establishing competition between fishermen and meat growers, prices could be lowered all the way around.
From: http://www.saukherald.com/Main.asp?SectionID=10&SubSectionID=58&ArticleID=6044

what do you eat on holy thursday

The ancient Romans ate fish to honor the goddess Venus. Friday was named for Venus in many of the languages based on Vulgar Latin. The fish was a symbol of the goddess for several reasons.

Since most of the various rites of the Catholic church recognized Rome and the Pope as their spiritual leader, the customs of the Romans became integrated into the church.

The story I have often heard from catholics did involve the fishing industry and an arrangement with the Pope to increase consumption of fish. However, I don't really know if this is the truth or an old wives' tale.

What is known is that the traditions of Lent, the time celebrated by Catholics and other Christians to commemorate the suffering and death of Christ, have evolved quite a bit over the years and only more recently settled into the "Fish on Fridays" tradition. Adherents used to be encouraged to fast on Fridays and holy days, in memory of Christ's suffering. Some people would fast for the entire forty days, eating only a single meager meal at a proscribed hour. Other leaders such as Saint Augustine would give up all animal products including meat, milk, and eggs. Fish on Fridays is a compromise that is much easier for people to follow faithfully than these other options.

The Catholic Dictionary has a rather long article detailing Lenten traditions throughout history at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09152a.htm

There is no origin of eating Friday, even on during Fridays lent. But there is absolute fasting on Good Friday every year in honor to Jesus crucifixion.

why is it called fri-day is not fri the seed or newly born of a fish. the philistine people worshiped a god called dagon (dey-gon)who was half man half fish. it's in the bible. perhaps dagon was simply an ancient mer-man from lost atlantis. or merely their take on aphrodite or a relation there-of.

Fasting has been part of religious devotional life from ancient times. As early as 100 A.D., Christians were setting aside days of the week to fast, including Friday (according to the early church manual The Didache). This usually meant going without meat and dairy products. Since fish wasn't considered a luxury item or "real meat" like a steak or a roast, it was permitted. There's no documentation that any pope at any time made some slick back room deal with an Italian fishery so that people would have to eat more fish. Didn't happen. Stories like this are more wishful thinking than anything else, with no hard evidence to back them up.

I'm afraid you are all wrong, the fish Friday laws where more to boost the economy than for religious reasons. Very few people at that time could afford meat of any kind on any day. Salt was the primary source of the British economy though and the only preservative for fish. The church was in bed with somebody, the government. By making the fish Friday laws the church was able to stimulate the government wealth, and the fishing and mining industries, which in fact were the mainstays of the British economy of that time.
This had nothing to do with the Italians but no doubt spread throughout the catholic religion since most economies at the time were based on fishing and salt production. This was also, a big part of the reason why America was formed to build a new country with laws preventing church and state to rule over the people.

An early Christian document, the Didache, urges fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays in honor of our Lord's passion. Giving up meat is a particular penance because most people like meat and find it more tasty to eat than other things like fish. But Catholics are not required to eat fish. On Fridays of Lent they go without meat but can eat only vegetables if they want.

The Jewish Talmud which holds esoteric teachings Christians also have integrated, states that fish is eaten on Friday to feed the extra soul that apparently entered the body on Friday/Venus(Mary) day or who was also known as the Norse Goddess Frigga, hence Friday and this soul left the body on the day of the Sabat or Sabbath. The fish(particularly, the skate) was suppposed too nourish this extra soul and to be a stimulant of the sexual appetite and the exileration of the added soul. Since ancient Hebrew which originates from Iberu, Iberu priests in Hibernia(Ireland), these customs actually originates from the Druids(see Gaelic and Hebrew language similarity and the outlawing of Galeic language to veil the help the origins.