Lent, in
Christian
tradition, is the period of the
liturgical year leading up to
Easter.
The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer
— through
prayer,
penitence,
almsgiving
and
self-denial — for the annual
commemoration during
Holy Week of the
Death and Resurrection
of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the
Passion of Christ and culminates in
Easter, the celebration of the
Resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
Conventionally it is described as being forty days long, though
different
denominations
calculate the forty days differently. The forty days represent the
time that, according to the
Bible,
Jesus spent in the wilderness before the beginning of
his
public ministry, where he
endured temptation by
Satan.
This practice was virtually universal in
Christendom until the
Protestant Reformation. Some
Protestant churches do not observe Lent, but many, such as
Lutherans,
Methodists,
and
Anglicans do.
Duration
In
Western Christianity (with
the exception of the
Archdiocese of
Milan which follows the
Ambrosian
Rite), Lent begins on
Ash
Wednesday and concludes on
Holy
Saturday. The six
Sundays in Lent are not
counted among the forty days because each Sunday represents a
"mini-
Easter", a celebration of Jesus'
victory over
sin and
death.
In those churches which follow the
Byzantine tradition (e.g.
Eastern Orthodox and
Eastern Catholics), the forty days of Lent
are calculated differently: the fast begins on
Clean Monday, Sundays are included in the
count, and it ends on the Friday before
Palm
Sunday. The days of
Lazarus
Saturday,
Palm Sunday and
Holy Week are considered a distinct period of
fasting. For more detailed information about the
Eastern Christian practice of Lent, see
the article
Great Lent.
Amongst
Oriental Orthodox
Christians, there are various local traditions regarding Lent. The
Coptic,
Ethiopian and
Eritrean Orthodox Churches observe
a total of fifty-five days for Lent. Joyous Saturday and the week
preceding it are counted separately from the forty day fast in
accordance with the
Apostolic
Constitutions giving an extra eight days. The first seven days
of the fast are considered by some to be an optional time of
preparation. Others attribute these seven days to the fast of
Holofernes who asked the Syrian Christians to fast for him after
they requested his assistance to repel the invading pagan
Persians.
Origin
The Lenten
semi-fast may have originated for practical reasons: during the era
of subsistence agriculture
in the West as food stored away in the previous autumn was running
out or had to be used before it went bad in store, and little or no
new food-crop was expected soon (compare the period in Spring which
British
gardeners
call the "hungry gap").
The word "lent" came from the
Anglo-Saxon lencten meaning
"
Spring ".
Other related fasting periods
The number
forty has many Biblical references: the forty days Moses spent on Mount
Sinai with God ( ); the
forty days and nights Elijah spent walking to
Mount Horeb ( ); God made it rain for
forty days and forty nights in the days of Noah
( ); the Hebrew people wandered forty years traveling to the
Promised Land ( ); Jonah in his prophecy of judgment gave the city of Nineveh
forty days
in which to repent ( ).
Jesus retreated into the wilderness, where he fasted for forty
days, and was tempted by the
devil ( , , ). Jesus overcame all
three of Satan's
temptations by citing
scripture to the devil, at which point the devil left him, angels
ministered to Jesus, and he began his
ministry. Jesus further said that his
disciples should fast "when the bridegroom shall be taken from
them" ( ), a reference to his Passion. Since, presumably, the
Apostles fasted as they mourned the death of Jesus, Christians have
traditionally fasted during the annual commemoration of his
burial.
It is the traditional belief that Jesus lay for forty hours in the
tomb which led to the forty hours of total fast that preceded the
Easter celebration in the
early
Church (the biblical reference to 'three days in the tomb' is
understood as
spanning three days, from Friday afternoon
to early Sunday morning, rather than three 24 hour periods of
time). One of the most important ceremonies at Easter was the
baptism of the initiates on
Easter Eve. The fast was initially undertaken by
the
catechumens to prepare them for the
reception of this
sacrament. Later, the
period of fasting from
Good Friday until
Easter Day was extended to six days, to
correspond with the six weeks of training, necessary to give the
final instruction to those
converts who were to be baptized.
Converts to Christianity followed a strict
catechumenate or period of instruction and
discipline prior to baptism.
In Jerusalem
near the close of the fourth century, classes were
held throughout Lent for three hours each day. With the
legalization of
Christianity (by the
Edict of Milan) and its later
imposition as the
state religion of
the
Roman Empire, its character was
endangered by the great influx of new members. In response, the
Lenten fast and practices of
self-renunciation were required
annually of all Christians, both to show solidarity with the
catechumens, and for their own spiritual benefit. The less zealous
converts were thus brought more securely into the Christian
fold.
Traditionally, on Easter Sunday, Roman Catholics may cease their
fasting and start again whatever they gave up for Lent, after they
attend Mass on Easter Sunday. Other Western
denominations have also followed
this general principle to a greater or lesser degree, although some
do not practice Lent and see it as an obscure tradition without
Biblical merit.
Name
In
Latin the term
quadragesima (translation of the original
Greek tessarakoste, the
"fortieth day" before Easter) is used. This nomenclature is
preserved in
Romance,
Slavic and
Celtic languages (for example,
Spanish cuaresma,
Portuguese quaresma,
French carême,
Italian quaresima,
Croatian korizma,
Irish Carghas, and
Welsh C(a)rawys).
In the late
Middle Ages, as
sermons began to be given in the
vernacular instead of Latin, the
English word
lent was adopted.
This word initially simply meant
spring (as in
German language Lenz and
Dutch lente) and derives from the
Germanic root for
long
because in the spring the days visibly lengthen.
Associated customs
There are traditionally forty days in Lent which are marked by
fasting, both from foods and festivities, and by other acts of
penance. The three traditional practices to
be taken up with renewed vigour during Lent are
prayer (
justice towards God),
fasting (justice towards self), and
almsgiving (justice towards neighbour). Today,
some people give up a vice of theirs, add something that will bring
them closer to God, and often give the time or money spent doing
that to
charitable purposes or
organizations.
In many
liturgical Christian denominations,
Good Friday,
Holy
Saturday and
Easter Sunday form
the
Easter Triduum. Lent is a season
of grief that necessarily ends with a great celebration of Easter.
It is known in
Eastern Orthodox
circles as the season of "Bright Sadness." It is a season of
sorrowful
reflection which is
punctuated by breaks in the fast on Sundays.
In the
Roman Catholic Mass,
Lutheran Divine
Service, and
Anglican Eucharist, the
Gloria in Excelsis Deo is not
sung during the Lenten season, disappearing on Ash Wednesday and
not returning until the moment of the Resurrection during the
Easter Vigil. On major feast days, the
Gloria in Excelsis Deo is recited, but this in no way
diminishes the penitential character of the season; it simply
reflects the joyful character of the Mass of the day in question.
It is also used in the
Mass of
the Lord's Supper. Likewise, the
Alleluia is not sung during Lent; it is
replaced before the
Gospel reading by a
seasonal
acclamation. In the pre-1970
form of the
Roman Rite omission of the
Alleluia begins with
Septuagesima.
Prior to 1970, the last two weeks of Lent were known as
Passiontide, which began on what in the 1962
edition of the
Roman Missal is called
the First Sunday in Passiontide and in earlier editions Passion
Sunday, but is now the Fifth Sunday in Lent. All statues (and in
England paintings as well) in the church were veiled in violet.
This was seen to be in accordance with the Gospel of that Sunday (
), in which Jesus “hid himself” from the people. The veils were
removed at the singing of the
Gloria during the
Easter Vigil. Following
Vatican II, and in the Reformed
Kalendar of 1970, Passiontide was discontinued. Whether to maintain
the tradition of veiling images is left to the decision of a
country's conference of bishops.
In the
Byzantine Rite, the Gloria
(
Great Doxology) continues to be used
in its normal place in the Matins service, and the Alleluia appears
all the more frequently, replacing "God is the Lord" at
Matins.
Pre-Lenten festivals
The "Funken" set ablaze.
Although originally of
pagan content , the
traditional
carnival celebrations which
precede Lent in many cultures have become associated with the
season of fasting if only because they are a last opportunity for
excess before Lent begins.
The most famous of pre-Lenten carnivals in
the World are the ones celebrated in Rio de Janeiro
, in USA
it is the Shrove
Tuesday or Mardi Gras (literally "Fat
Tuesday").
Fasting and abstinence
Fasting during Lent was more severe in ancient times than today.
Socrates Scholasticus reports
that in some places, all animal products were strictly forbidden,
while others will permit fish, others permit fish and fowl, others
prohibit fruit and eggs, and still others eat only bread. In some
places, believers abstained from food for an entire day; others
took only one meal each day, while others abstained from all food
until 3 o'clock. In most places, however, the practice was to
abstain from eating until the evening, when a small meal without
meat or alcohol was eaten. Even now, the
Romanian,
Coptic,
Ethiopian and
Eritrean Orthodox Churches continue
the practice of avoiding all animal products including fish, eggs,
fowl and milk sourced from animals (e.g. goats and cows as opposed
to the milk of soy beans and coconuts) for the entire fifty-five
days of their Lent.
During the
early Middle Ages,
meat, eggs and dairy products were generally forbidden.
Thomas Aquinas argued that "they afford
greater pleasure as food [than fish], and greater nourishment to
the human body, so that from their consumption there results a
greater surplus available for seminal matter, which when abundant
becomes a great incentive to lust."
However,
dispensations for dairy products were
given, frequently for a donation, from which several churches are
popularly believed to have been built, including the "Butter Tower"
of the Rouen
Cathedral
.In
Spain, the bull of the Holy
Crusade (renewed
periodically after 1492) allowed the consumption of dairy products
and eggs during Lent in exchange for a contribution to the
conflict.
Giraldus Cambrensis in his Itinerary
of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales reports that "in Germany
and the
arctic regions," "great and religious
persons," classified the tail of beavers as
"fish" because of its superficial resemblance to a fish and their
relative abundance.
In current Western societies the practice is considerably relaxed,
though in the Eastern Orthodox,
Oriental Orthodox and
Eastern Catholic Churches abstinence
from the above-mentioned food products is still commonly practiced,
meaning only vegetarian meals are consumed during this time in many
Eastern countries. Lenten practices (as well as various other
liturgical practices) are more common in
Protestant circles than they once were. In the
Roman Catholic Church it is tradition to abstain from meat from
Ungulates (meaning roughly "being
hooved" or "hooved animal") every Friday for the
duration of Lent, although dairy products are still permitted. On
Ash Wednesday it is customary to fast for the day, with no meat,
eating only one full meal, and if necessary, two small meals
also.
Contemporary legislation is rooted in the 1966
Apostolic Constitution of
Pope Paul VI,
Paenitemini. He recommended that fasting be
appropriate to the local economic situation, and that all Catholics
voluntarily fast and abstain. He also allowed that fasting and
abstinence might be substituted with prayer and works of
charity.
Pursuant to Canon 1253, days of fasting and
abstinence are set by the national
Episcopal conference. On days of
fasting, one eats only one full meal, but may eat two smaller meals
as necessary to keep up one's strength. The two small meals
together must sum to less than the one full meal. Parallel to the
fasting laws are the laws of abstinence. These bind those over the
age of fourteen. On days of abstinence, the person must not eat
meat or poultry. According to
canon law, all Fridays of the
year, Ash Wednesday and several other days are days of abstinence,
though in most countries, the strict requirements of abstinence
have been limited by the
bishops
(in accordance with Canon 1253) to the Fridays of Lent and Ash
Wednesday. On other abstinence days, the faithful are invited to
perform some other act of penance.
Many modern
Protestants consider the
observation of Lent to be a choice, rather than an obligation. They
may decide to give up a
favorite food or
drink (e.g. chocolate, alcohol) or activity (e.g., going to the
movies, playing video games, etc.) for Lent, or they may instead
take on a Lenten discipline such as
devotions,
volunteering for
charity work, and so on. Roman
Catholics may also observe Lent in this way in addition to the
dietary restrictions outlined above, though observation is no
longer mandatory under the threat of
mortal
sin. Many Christians who choose not to follow the dietary
restrictions cite
1 Timothy 4:1-5 which
warns of doctrines that "forbid people to marry and order them to
abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with
thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth."
When observing fasting or abstinence during Lent, regard must be
paid to the fact that Sundays are Feast Days, so there is no fast
or abstinence. The days from
Ash
Wednesday to the day before Easter Sunday, excluding the
Sundays, are forty, corresponding to the number of days Christ
spent in the wilderness.
Holy Days
There are several holy days within the season of Lent.
- Ash Wednesday is the first day of
Lent in Western Christianity.
- Clean Monday (or "Ash Monday") is
the first day in Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
- The fourth Lenten Sunday, which marks the halfway point between
Ash Wednesday and Easter, is sometimes referred to as Laetare Sunday, particularly by Roman
Catholics, and Mothering Sunday,
which has become synonymous with Mother's
Day in the United Kingdom. However, its origin is a sixteenth
century celebration of the Mother
Church.
- The fifth Lenten Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday (however, that term is also
applied to Palm Sunday) marks the
beginning of Passiontide.
- The sixth Lenten Sunday, commonly called Palm Sunday, marks the beginning of Holy Week,
the final week of Lent immediately preceding Easter.
- Wednesday of Holy Week is known as Spy Wednesday to commemorate the days on which
Judas spied on Jesus in the garden of
Gethsemane
before betraying him.
- Thursday is known as Maundy
Thursday, or Holy Thursday, and is a day Christians commemorate
the Last Supper shared by Christ with
his disciple.
- Good Friday follows the next day, on
which Christians remember His crucifixion and burial.
In the Roman Catholic Church, the
Easter
Triduum is a three-day event that begins with the entrance hymn
of the Mass of the Lord's Supper. After this Holy Thursday evening
celebration, the consecrated
hosts
are taken from the altar solemnly to a place of reposition where
the faithful are invited to worship the
holy
Body of Christ. On the next day the liturgical commemoration of
the Passion of Jesus Christ is celebrated at 3 p.m., unless a later
time is chosen due to work schedules. This service consists of
readings from the
Scriptures especially
John the Evangelist's account of
the
Passion of Jesus,
followed by prayers, adoration of the cross of Jesus, and a
communion service at which the hosts consecrated at the evening
Mass of the day before are distributed. The
Easter Vigil during the night between Holy
Saturday afternoon and Easter Sunday morning starts with the
blessing of a fire and a special candle and with readings from
Scripture associated with
baptism, then the
Gloria in Excelsis Deo is
sung, water is blessed, baptism and
confirmation of adults may take place, and the
people are invited to renew the promises of their own baptism, and
finally Mass is celebrated in the usual way from the Preparation of
the Gifts onwards.
Holy Week and the season of Lent, depending on
denomination and local
custom, end with Easter Vigil at sundown on Holy
Saturday or on the morning of Easter Sunday. It is custom for some
churches to hold sunrise services which include open air
celebrations in some places.
In the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and many Anglican churches, the
priest's vestments are
violet during the season of Lent. On the
fourth Sunday in Lent, rose-coloured vestments may be worn in lieu
of violet. In some Anglican churches, a type of unbleached linen or
muslin known as Lenten array is used during the first three weeks
of Lent, and crimson during Passiontide. On holy days, the colour
proper to the day is worn.
See also
References
-
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=Lent&searchmode=none
- Catholic Encyclopedia - Lent See paragraph: Duration
of the Fast
- Lent & Beyond: Dr. Peter Toon—From Septuagesima to
Quadragesima
- The Restored Church of God: The True Meaning of
Lent
- Online Etymology Dictionary, Lent. Retrieved 2009-03-08.
- Spirit Home: Lent—disciplines and practices
- General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the
Calendar, 19
- Summa Theologica Q147a8.
- Implicaciones económicas del miedo religioso en dos
instituciones del Antiguo Régimen: la Inquisición y la Bula de
Cruzada., Alejandro Torres Gutiérrez, Universidad
Complutense de Madrid. Millennium:Fear and Religion.
- Colin B. Donovan, Fast and
Abstinence. Accessed 2007-12-28.
- Klemens Stock, SJ. Liturgy
of the Word: Commentaries of the Gospel Readings - Lent of Year
C, transl. by S Pascale-Dominique Nau (Rome, 2009), on-line:
http://www.calameo.com/books/000043343bf9b06c0e859.
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