However, one must be sensitive to the different senses in which one can use a term.
Many people similarly exclude fish from the definition of the term.
Thus it was appropriate to deny oneself this sign of rejoicing as a gesture of sorrow for having offended God by one's sins. Fish was not a special sign of rejoicing the same way that meat was, as it was less expensive and did not require slaughtering one of the animals of the flock or herd. Since the custom, for the Latin Rite of the Church, arose in Latin and Romance-language areas, it reflects this fact. In fact, in English at the time arose, the same was true. However, while the Eastern Rite abstinence is stricter, it does not have the force of law, as it does in the Western Rite.