“What’s Lent?”

NSFAQ (not so frequently asked questions) – learn more about our faith.

Lent is a time of preparation, the forty days before Easter, universally observed by the Church since its earliest days. For the first millennium, these 40 days were referred to as Τεσσαρακοστή in Greek (it’s Greek to me too!) and quadragesima in Latin. In the Middle Ages the English church began using the people’s language instead of “archaic” Latin, and the word “Lent” entered Church vocabulary.

Lent is shortened from lenten from the Old English lencten, a compound word meaning “lengthening of days.” Lencten probably referred to the increasing amount of daylight as spring approached.

Lent is like Advent as a time of preparation to remember Jesus’ humanity: Advent for incarnation (God becoming human), Lent for resurrection (God sacrificing his humanity). Similar in purpose, most see Lent as different than Advent. Advent’s anticipation grows until ‘ta-da’: Christmas! Lent’s anticipation is almost dormant, until a sudden fanfare and resolution: Easter!

Preparation during Lent is often intentional and solemn (some say glum), preparing for Easter with prayer, practices of self-denial, and voluntarily performing acts of devotion to show sorrow for sin (see next week’s bulletin).

Lent’s forty days may represent Jesus’ time in the desert enduring Satan’s temptation. Biblical references of 40 are plentiful: Moses’ 40 days on Mount Sinai with God; Elijah’s 40 days walking to Mount Horeb; Rain for 40 days and 40 nights (“Noah, I want you to build me an Ark…”); The Hebrew people’s 40 years traveling to the Promised Land; Nineveh’s 40 days in which to repent. In the days before precise time-keeping, the Biblical ‘three days in the tomb’ was understood as spanning three days, not three 24 hour periods of time. Tradition holds Jesus lay for 40 hours in the tomb.

Wait a minute! I counted the number of days from Ash Wednesday to Easter and there are actually 46! What’s up? Well, Sundays are always feast days of celebration in the Western Christian tradition, so the 6 Sundays are not included. However, many Eastern Christian traditions count Sundays so their observance of Lent begins six days later than Ash Wednesday, called Clean Monday.