fish days

views updated

fish days Historical; days on which fish, but not meat, could be eaten. Originally decreed by the Church (Fridays, fast days and throughout Lent); more were decreed in England during the sixteenth century, both to encourage ship building and the training of mariners, and also because of the shortage of meat, in order to permit an increase in the numbers of cattle. The Vatican rescinded the rule forbidding Catholics to eat meat on Fridays in 1966.