Dutch Catholics Rebrand Lent as Ramadan
An interesting twist. Even though as a Christian I don’t observe Lent I find the imagery and connection with the Muslim Holiday very misleading. What similarities or connection does Ramadan have to the Resurrection? Other than the emotional appeal to the younger crowd not aware of Lent why do it? What point is there to attract people to Lent without referring to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Here’s the article if you didn’t see it.
We’re playing telephone today: we got a link from the Cheapertising blog who highlighted the Got Religion blog who covered a story from the Telegraph. It takes a timely look at the season of Lent in the Netherlands, and a current re-branding that’s under way. I’ll quote:
“Dutch Catholics have re-branded the Lent fast as the ‘Christian Ramadan’ in an attempt to appeal to young people who are more likely to know about Islam than Christianity.”
As the season of Lent has become less important for the Dutch over the past years, they feel something must be done. Martin Van der Kull, director of Vastenaktie, a Catholic charity, had this to say:
“The image of the Catholic Lent must be polished. The fact that we use a Muslim term is related to the fact that Ramadan is a better-known concept among young people than Lent.”
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