[A series of Tumblr posts. The first shows a picture of ravioli, and reads: “This dish has another name - herrgottsb’scheisserle or ‘Fool the Lord’ - because of the story of how it first came about. One of the most popular theories is that the Cistercian monks of Maulbronn Monastery (hence the name Maultaschen) didn’t want to go without meat during Lent observance. So they concealed the forbidden food from the sight of the Lord by enclosing it in pasta dough.”
The next Tumblr quote post reads: “Ravioli Of Lying To God”
The final Tumblr quote post reads: “God: What are you eating? Cistercian Monk: chews faster”]
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I love all these kind of stories. Pascal’s Wager, Sin’s Plate, this sneaky ravioli.
They all contend that you can trick god. The same god who is both omniscient and omnipotent.
I don’t know if any of those are serious or just jests that became tradition but they are amusing.
Also, declaring a beaver a fish, so that it could be eaten during Lent. Funny little loopholes
Eat beaver and thine sin shall be forgiven, pretty sure that’s what she said…
The dish in question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maultasche
You don’t need to know much German to tell that Herrgottb’scheisserie does not quite translate to “Fool the Lord”.
Does “bullshit the Lord” work better?
Yeah. I am not a native speaker of either language though, is “shitting sb.” something one might say?
Anyway, the etymology, as I understand it, is:
- Herr Gott/Herrgott: “Lord”, or literally “Mr God”, typical way German-speaking Christians address God
- bescheißen: screw, bullshit
- -erie: French feminine noun ending, sometimes used as the English “-er”
So yeah, you could translate it as “thing to bullshit the Lord”, or “Godbullshitter”.
Token German chiming in
You got most of it quite right, except the ending. It’s -erle, or really just -le (depending on where you split the word). The suffix is used to change a word to sound smaller, cute, playful and generally less serious. It also has a southern accent/sound to me, but take that with a pinch of salt. Not sure if there is an english comparison. Its similar to another german suffix: -chen
Close, but the word ends in -le, not -ie. The -le suffix is used as a diminutive form in some German dialects.
The ending is not -erie but -le which is a diminutive that gets used in certain southern german dialects.
“Bescheissen” is not as vulgar as you might think, even if it contains Scheisse (shit).
A more literal translation would be “little Good Lords cheat”. The “*le” at the end is a local (South German) dialect thing, a diminutive suffix meaning “little”, just like “doggy” means “little dog”.
Cistercian monks also had their own number cypher that looks pretty neat.
In the same class as poophole loophole
