A Brief Guide to a Hunter Lent
- Corinna Turner
- 18 hours ago
- 4 min read
In the fictional unSPARKed series, recreated dinosaurs roam a future America. Most people have withdrawn into cities protected by towering electric fences, but two groups still live outside: Farmers and Hunters.
Hunter culture (a blend of rural and Native American influences) has a strong Catholic flavor thanks to popular countryside devotion to Saint Desmond the Hermit, which, as one priest puts it, “is bordering on turning into a folk religion in its own right. But reaching out to God through a saint is better than not reaching out to Him at all.”
Saint Desmond the Hermit famously lived alone and unprotected in a cave for over twenty years shortly after the Rewilding (the establishment of dinosaurs in the wild after their escape), without coming to any harm. He was even friends with some of the local raptors and cared for them when they were injured (very much a dino-era Saint Francis of Assisi). It's not hard to see why this holy man gained so much popularity with those who live “unSPARKed” (outside an electric fence).
Thanks to the influence of their holy hermit patron saint, Hunters take Lent a lot more seriously than city-Catholics.
Here are some of their practices:
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday:
Total fast. No food at all. Water only.
Day after Ash Wednesday:
Plain porridge for breakfast with the remaining ashes mixed into it from the signing of foreheads the day before.
Fridays:
One full meal only (no meat).
Sundays:
A nicer meal, but only from what's permissible in Lent.
All Lent:
No luxury foods at all. This includes no spices, no seasonings, not even salt or pepper. No dessert. No sweets or snacks.
No frivolous or worldly entertainment.
Serious or faith-focused books and movies only.
Take extra time to help others.
Families often put more effort into holding some sort of family prayers daily or weekly, or getting an itinerant rural priest along to their camp (a small settlement of several families, usually permanent) to say Mass.
The final two weeks of Lent...
what we would call Passiontide, Hunters know as “Deep Lent”. During these two weeks they stop eating meat entirely (usually an important part of their diet) although they allow cheese and eggs and other animal products since they do such physically strenuous work. If you thought the Lenten meals were plain up until the Fifth Sunday of Lent, that's nothing to how they are during Deep Lent! The simpler the better during this last push.
Elderly Hunters won't skip fasting unless their health forces them to, and youngsters usually are keen to fast as soon as their parents will let them (admittedly this may often have as much to do with wanting to be “big boys and girls” as it does with religious fervor!).
If this all sounds rather strict, it's worth bearing in mind that Hunters live very physically demanding lives compared to the city-folk, so it won't feel quite as tough to them as it sounds to us!
And then there's the pay-off!
Not only spiritual growth for those who enter into it with faith rather than merely as a cultural practice, but Hunters really know how to celebrate Eastertide!
Easter eggs: You've never seen an Easter egg until you've seen a Hunter Easter egg! They empty huge dinosaur eggs (by the normal egg-blowing method we use on chicken eggs), then they fill them completely full of chocolate and truffle and fudge and all things delicious (just think how much chocolate it takes to fill an Ornithomimus egg!). But they're not finished yet! Then they paint the shells all over with beautiful Easter symbols and patterns. The end result is so stunning that they don't eat them right away. After gifting, the eggs are displayed and enjoyed visually until Pentecost. This is seen as teaching self-control. Then—horror!—the gorgeously painted shells are broken and peeled away (a reminder of the impermanence of all worldly things) and the contents feasted upon (Christ is Risen and Ascended and the Holy Spirit has come!).
Feasting! Even if they have to wait for their eggs, at Easter itself they feast with lavish abundance after all the weeks of strict Lenten fasting—much as Catholics did in the past. More penance—but more pleasure afterwards!
Relaxation: No working for the entire of the Easter octave. As much food as possible is prepared in advance and families gather for eight days of fun, games, and laughter (or such is the idea!).
You can read more about Hunter Lenten practices in the short story “A Very Jurassic Lent,” which can be found in the CTB anthology Ashes: Visible & Invisible or in the unSPARKed anthology Three Clawsome Tales.
You can read about the Hunter Easter eggs in book 8 of the main unSPARKed series, A Different Kind of Camouflage (though it might be better to start with book 1!).
Hunter fasting is also important in the short story “A Very Jurassic Hallowtide,” which can be found in the CTB anthology Shadows: Visible & Invisible.
About the author: Corinna Turner has been writing since she was fourteen and likes strong protagonists with plenty of integrity. She has an MA in English from Oxford University, but has foolishly gone on to work with both children and animals! Juggling work with the disabled and being a midwife to sheep, she spends as much time as she can in a little hut at the bottom of the garden, writing.
She is a Catholic Christian with roots in the Methodist and Anglican churches. A keen cinema-goer, she lives in the UK with her classic campervan ‘Toby’ (short for Tobias!), her larger and more expensive substitute for her lovely Giant African Land Snail, Peter, who sadly passed away in October 2016.
image by mila-del-monte at Pixabay