No Break for Catholics on Ash Wednesday/Valentine’s Day

Valentine's Day is a day where often life's luxuries (decadent dinner, wine, desserts) are on full display. For Catholics this year though, the timing of the most romantic day of the year falling on the holiday that begins a period of fasting and sacrifice...well, as Elvis would day..."don't be cruel."

This is the first time in 73 years where Ash Wednesday falls on February 14. In the past, the Diocese has made special dispensations for cases where a Friday during the Lent season conflicts with a food-oriented holiday (like last year when St. Patrick's Day fell on a Friday).

As reported by Reuters:

“Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are the only two days of the whole year on which fasting and abstinence are required,” Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, New York, told church members in a video posted online Friday. “Those who are accustomed to celebrating Valentine’s Day might do so the day before. Join it up with Mardis Gras.”

Christians will face a similar holiday overlap again in a few weeks’ time, when April Fool’s Day and Easter both fall on April 1.

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