While it provided temporary solace from abstaining, the practice of staying thoroughly soaked through Lent didn't sit well with some prominent religious figures.
Later on, the parade would be used more often for Mardi Gras celebrations, where revelers would don costumes and process down the roads in celebrations just prior to Lent.
She asked herself when it would begin, like fire-works, or Lent, or the opera season; not that she cared much, but she wondered what kept it in abeyance.
Of course, he probably didn't have to eat some of the meat substitutes that commoners were forced to turn to, like the mock egg, a dish that was invented as a meat replacement during lent.