Lent

Lent [Old Eng. lencten,=spring], Latin Quadragesima (meaning 40; thus the 40 days of Lent). In Christianity, Lent is a time of penance, prayer, preparation for or recollection of baptism, and preparation for the celebration of Easter. Observance of Lent is as old as the 4th cent. In Eastern churches it is reckoned as the six weeks before Palm Sunday. In the West the penitential season begins liturgically with Septuagesima, the ninth Sunday before Easter; the next Sundays are Sexagesima and Quinquagesima. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, the 40th weekday before Easter. Of the Sundays in Lent the fifth is Passion Sunday and the last is Palm Sunday. The week preceding Easter is Holy Week. Lent ends at midnight Holy Saturday. See Shrove Tuesday. From the 5th to 9th cent. strict fasting was required; only one meal was allowed per day, and meat and fish (and sometimes eggs and dairy) were forbidden. During and since the 9th cent. fasting restrictions were gradually loosened. By the 20th cent. meat was allowed, except on Fridays. Pope Paul VI began (1966) a trend toward penitential works (such as acts of charity) in conjunction with Lent. The Christian observance of Lent may have a parallel in the fasting practiced in Greco-Roman mystery religions, in which it was considered an aid to enlightenment and often preceeded prophecy. Lent may also have a parallel in the Jewish Omer, the interval between Passover and Shavuot that has become a time of semimourning and sadness. During the weeks of the Omer period, Jews in some communities refrain from wearing new clothes and there are no marriages or other public festivities.

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Lent

In the Christian church, a period of penitential preparation for Easter, observed since apostolic times. Western churches once provided for a 40-day fast (excluding Sundays), in imitation of Jesus' fasting in the wilderness; one meal a day was allowed in the evening, and meat, fish, eggs, and butter were forbidden. These rules have gradually been relaxed, and only Ash Wednesday—the first day of Lent in Western Christianity, when the penitent traditionally have their foreheads marked with ashes—and Good Friday are now kept as Lenten fast days. Rules of fasting are stricter in the Eastern churches.

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Lent

Christianity the period of forty weekdays lasting from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, observed as a time of penance and fasting commemorating Jesus' fasting in the wilderness

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Lent

Begins between February 4 and March 10 in West and between February 15 and March 21 in East; 40-day period, beginning on Ash Wednesday in the West and on the Monday seven weeks before Easter in the East; ends on Easter eve, Holy Saturday

Self-denial during a period of intense religious devotion has been a long-standing tradition in both the Eastern and Western churches. In the early days, Christians prepared for Easter with a strict fast only from Good Friday until Easter morning. It wasn't until the ninth century that the Lenten season, called the Great Lent in the East to differentiate it from the Advent fast called Little Lent, was fixed at 40 days (with Sundays omitted)—perhaps reflecting the biblical importance attached to the number 40: Moses had gone without food for 40 days on Mt. Sinai, the children of Israel had wandered for 40 years with little sustenance, Elijah had fasted 40 days, and so did Jesus, between his baptism and the beginning of his ministry.
In the Western church further extensions led to a no-longer-existing "pre-Lent" season, with its Sundays called Septuagesima (roughly 70 days before Easter), Sexagesima (60), and Quinquagesima (50)—all preceding the first Sunday of Lent, Quadragesima (40).
The first day of Orthodox Lent is called Clean Monday.
For centuries the Lenten season has been observed with certain periods of strict fasting, and with abstinence from meat, and in the East, also from dairy products, wine, and olive oil, as well as giving up something—a favorite food or other worldly pleasure—for the 40 days of Lent. Celebrations such as Carnival and Mardi Gras offered Christians their last opportunities to indulge before the rigorous Lenten restrictions.
See also Ash Wednesday; Cheese Sunday; Mothering Sunday; Shrove Monday; Shrove Tuesday

CONTACTS:
Christian Resource Institute
4712 N. Hammond
Warr Acres, OK 73122
405-789-0449
www.cresourcei.org
Orthodox Church in America
P.O. Box 675
Syosset, NY 11791
516-922-0550; fax: 516-922-0954
www.oca.org

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FestWestEur-1958, p. 211
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