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}}</ref> But sometimes members of some local community, wishing to atone for their sins, usually when faced by some kind of disaster, would voluntarily vow to fast even more strictly than required by Church authorities; the entire community would then follow this more rigorous fast for decades until the local bishop, or even the pope himself, released them from the vow. This meant that fasting customs could differ from country to country and even from diocese to diocese. Generally speaking, fasting was very strict in the early Middle Ages and was gradually liberalized as time went by. But in Poland liberal novelties have always taken longer to take hold, so Polish people were considered particularly strict fasters for centuries. And Masovians, who lived in a northeastern backwater part of Poland, had the reputation of the kind of folks who would rather kill a man (especially one who broke fast himself) than eat cheese on a Friday.<ref>''Ibid.'', p. 173</ref>
And so, Polish people used to fast not only on every Friday (as many still do), but also on every Saturday and Wednesday, on every eve of each of several dozen major holidays, on [[Good Humour, Good Health#Humoral Diet in Practice|Ember Days ]] (three in each quarter of the year) and during the entire Advent and Lent (which also happened to be longer than they are today). On average, every other day was a lean, or fasting, day.<ref>''Ibid.'', p. 158</ref> Nowadays, Lent covers the period of 40 days (not counting Sundays) prior to Easter. But it used to start 17 days earlier than that. This additional 17-day period of fasting was then declared optional and, known as Shrovetide or Pre-Lent, it was treated as a time of preparation for Lent proper. Some of you may remember me mentioning Shrovetide in my post about [[Holey Breads|holey breads]], the pretzels and ''obwarzanki'' traditionally eaten on lean days. And also about how the Duchess of Masovia paid a visit to Queen Hedwig of Poland during Pre-Lent; when they dined together, Saint Hedwig ate only herrings and ''obwarzanki'' (ring-shaped breads), whereas the Duchess, who opted not to fast during that time, had chicken instead.<ref>{{ Cyt
| nazwisko r = Przezdziecki
| imię r = Alexander
