While observed for centuries by Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Episcopal, and Methodist Christians and certainly others , Lenten traditions and practices have evolved over time. Yet, in spite of a turbulent church history, to say nothing of the ebb and flow of human migration, the rise of kingdoms, the decline of empires, the essence of Lent remains largely unchanged from its earliest history. In recent years, Lent has seen a renewal among evangelical Christians who have been historically wary of some of its trappings.
So, how to tell the short version of a very long history? Where did Lent come from, and how has it changed over the centuries? Historians generally agree that the day period before Easter, known as Lent, emerged shortly following the Council of Nicea in AD. Earliest observances of Lent seem to have focused particularly on the practice of fasting. Council records suggest that the fast applied at first mainly to new converts as a period of repentance and reflection before baptism at Easter.
In any case, Lent quickly became a general practice churchwide. The actual day period varied region-to-region, even church-to-church; some including weekends, some not; some fasting Sundays, others not. But in every case, the fast was strict: one meal a day after 3 PM with no meat, fish, or dairy. And, increasingly, even nonreligious people are picking up the ritual. The easiest way to understand the church calendar is as a sort of live immersive theater, designed to reenact the life of Jesus every year from Christmas birth to Easter resurrection.
The period is a mirror of the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness , fasting, praying, and being tempted by Satan before he started his public ministry. Jesus had gone to the desert to prepare his soul for an intense three-year period of healing people, preaching, and ministering, at the end of which he was crucified by the Roman Empire and religious leaders.
Advent, the period leading up to Christmas , is also sometimes observed as a fast. But in that case, the period is meant to foster a feeling of anticipation before celebrating the birth of Jesus.
So, Christians who observe Lent are told to break their Lenten fast on Sunday and celebrate the feast. The manner in which they break that fast varies, depending on the tradition. This mirrors the Jewish teaching that prohibits fasting on the Sabbath, except in years when Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, falls on the Sabbath. In contrast to Christmas, which in Western Christianity encompassing most Protestants and Roman Catholics is always celebrated on December 25, Easter is a moveable holiday that drifts around the calendar.
As with many other holiday observances in Christianity, the history of Easter date-setting is rather long and complicated , stretching back millennia and interacting with various calendars used by people in the ancient world.
But since roughly the First Council of Nicaea in CE — when church leaders set rules, precedents, and guidelines for many aspects of Christian worship — the date of Easter has been more or less determined by locating the first full moon following March 21 on the Gregorian calendar.
As with Christmas, the Christian holiday of Easter has been adopted in the mainstream as a secularized holiday and packaged as a commercial product — traditionally with chocolate eggs and stuffed rabbits. That secularized version of the holiday is celebrated on the Western Christianity date for Easter. Hayes issued an order allowing children to roll Easter eggs on the lawn that day. Once the date for Easter is fixed, all you have to do to calculate the other days of observance that fall during the Lenten period — including Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday — is count backward.
Both of those days are traditionally marked with special church services. Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, falls 46 days before Easter. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent on the Western Christian calendar, falling 46 days before Easter. In , Ash Wednesday falls on February Traditionally, the minister applying the ashes says "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" or "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
The latter phrase originates in Genesis , when God casts Adam and Eve out of paradise after they disobey him and tells them they must labor for their food from that moment until their deaths. It is echoed throughout the Bible, and refers to the idea that man was created from the dust of the ground, and the body turns back into dust by disintegration after death. You can think of Ash Wednesday as the Christian spin on memento mori , a yearly reminder that our lives will one day end in death.
There was to be no meat, fish, or animal products eaten. Gregory, who is regarded as the father of the medieval papacy, is also credited with the ceremony that gives the day its name. As Christians came to the church for forgiveness, Gregory marked their foreheads with ashes reminding them of the biblical symbol of repentance sackcloth and ashes and mortality: "You are dust, and to dust you will return" Gen By the s, some Lenten practices were already becoming more relaxed.
First, Christians were allowed to eat after 3 p. By the s, it was noon. Eventually, various foods like fish were allowed, and in the Roman Catholic church only restricted fast days to Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
It should be noted, however, that practices in Eastern Orthodox churches are still quite strict. Though Lent is still devoutly observed in some mainline Protestant denominations most notably for Anglicans and Episcopalians , others hardly mention it at all.
However, there seems to be potential for evangelicals to embrace the season again. Many evangelical leaders, including Bill Bright of Campus Crusade and Jerry Falwell are promoting fasting as a way to prepare for revival.
For many evangelicals who see the early church as a model for how the church should be today, a revival of Lent may be the next logical step. In the Gospels, Jesus spends 40 days in the wilderness to fast and pray.
This event was one of the factors that inspired the final length of Lent. Early Christian practices in the Roman Empire varied from area to area. A common practice was weekly fasting on Wednesday and Friday until mid-afternoon. In addition, candidates for baptism, as well as the clergy, would fast before the rite, which often took place at Easter.
During the fourth century, various Christian communities observed a longer fast of 40 days before the beginning of the three holiest days of the liturgical year: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. As Christianity spread through Western Europe from the fifth through 12th centuries, the observance of Lent did as well. But daily fasting came gradually to be moderated during most of Lent.
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