The term Lent comes from the old English word “lencten”, meaning “spring.” It started in the fourth century, after the Council of Nicaea, as a forty-day period during which candidates were instructed in preparation for baptism at Easter. In the Christian world, this is forty days preceding Easter; It starts from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday; the six days each week, from Monday through Saturday, plus the four days from Ash Wednesday to the first Saturday.
The forty days of Lent recall Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness. It is a time of spiritual preparation in memory of Christ’s death and resurrection by special devotions and discipline. The liturgical color for Lent is violet.
Lent occupies a very serious time in orthodox calendar, Christians welcome this period with humility and renewing commitment in Christ. Christians of old have many means of visualizing and symbolizing the observance. Primarily the wearing of purple and black cloths is traditional. Imposition of ashes and wearing of rags are noticed. Reading of selected Scriptures, meditation, almsgiving and fasting are obvious. All these practices are known in the liturgical Churches as part of repentance and focus on the disciplines or spiritual growth.
According to the Christian calendar, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is forty-six days before Easter Sunday. Ash Wednesday retains its name from ancient tradition of marking the forehead with ashes in the sign of the cross by the Priest on Ash Wednesday. Our Church Fathers use ashes in this form to remind everyone that we are of the dust of the earth and need God’s favour. The Psalmist says that “God knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust” (Ps. 103:14); He is willing to forgive us our failures. God knows we are weak and that we sometimes do foolish things.
When the Priest makes the sign of the cross with the ashes on the foreheads of parishioners he says to them, “Remember, you are dust.” Assuredly, God knows who we are and always helps us in our weakness. The use of Ashes also indicates penitence (John 3: 6 -10, Job 2: 8; Jer. 6: 25; Matt 1: 21)
The day before Ash Wednesday is called Shrove Tuesday because people in the Middle Ages were accustomed to confess their sins (shrive themselves) that day. As in the English carnival, it was naturally, and is still to some extent, a day of festivity.
But before Lent or Ash Wednesday, we observe three Sundays which precede it, (a) Septuagesima (third Sunday before Lent or 70 days before Easter), (b) Sexagesima (Second Sunday before Lent or 60 days before Easter), and (c) Quinquagesima (last Sunday before Lent or 50 days before Easter). These three Sundays remained as a preparatory phase for Lent itself in the West from the middle of the fifth century onwards and were established at Rome before the end of the sixth century.
According to history some start the observation of the Lent fast at Septuagesima. The Greeks start at Sexagesima and the Secular Clergy at Quinquagesima. Once we have come to Ash Wednesday, we have come to begin Lent. The term Lent has received its meaning from an old English word meaning “lengthen” and has to do with the lengthening days of spring. The word has come to mean “preparation.” The forty-six days of Lent are a time for us to prepare for the commemorative feast of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Lent is the forty-six days preceding Easter Sunday. It ends on the Easter Eve. The six days which make it forty-six days are the six Sundays which are devoted as the Days of the Lord, They are excluded from the days of fasting because each Sunday is the commemoration of Christ’s resurrection, which means the victory of Christ over the devil, death and sin and a joyful day for Christians.
Thus, Sundays are not recommended as fasting days. Stevenson makes it clear when he referred to Tertullian, “It is unlawful to fast on Sunday. This is based on traditional grounds that Sunday was never a fast day. It was implying that the week days of the six weeks before Easter provided 36 days only. So Lent becomes extended for four days prior to Quadragesima (Latin word meaning “forty” days) to make up the forty days now started on Ash Wednesday.
The week just before Easter Sunday is Holy Week; its Sunday is called Palm Sunday (Christ triumphant entry to Jerusalem). Meanwhile as Lent comes to an end, the Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday – the day Jesus entered Jerusalem, hailed as a king. In the triumphant entry, we see Jesus freely accepting the role of the humble servant of God who suffers for his people.
The promise of the suffering servant focuses on Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a suffering king. We call this day Palm Sunday, because as Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people laid their garments and palm leaves and other leafy branches on the road to cushion His ride.
In the ancient world palm branches were used for this purpose, Kings and Queens would travel through the streets of their city on carpets of cloth or even flowers. The people of Jerusalem laying their garments down for Jesus to ride on were demonstrating their ways of calling Him their King (Matthew 21: 9). On Palm Sunday, activities such as liturgical red color hangings and Palm Sunday procession are usually observed.
The remaining days of the Holy Week focus on the final events of Jesus’ life leading up to the betrayal by Judas and ultimately to the crucifixion and further to the effort of Pilate to seal the tomb. The Thursday of the Holy Week is called Maundy Thursday which marks the night of betrayal and Last Super celebration.
Good Friday is the most solemn day of the year, for on the first Good Friday our Lord was crucified. The Priest puts on black vestments. On Good Friday the day of Crucifixion, worship activities based on biblical Seven Words on the Cross are conducted. During those hours of lessons, renewing commitments to Christ and repentance from acts of disobedience are always witnessed. Believers also reflect on the sufferings and sacrifices of Christ. Holy Saturday is silent Saturday/Easter Eve. Then there comes the early Easter morning, the morning of victory. The first Easter, the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, occurred in connection with the Jewish Passover, which occurs on the fifteenth of the Hebrew month, Nisan. To this day, people of the Jewish faith celebrate Passover on this date. For a long time Easter has been subject to many accommodations resulting from powerful spring observances. It is the greatest of all Church festivals, commemorating our Lord’s Resurrection. The Priests put on white vestments on that day.
In order to assure that believers were able to distinguish clearly between Christian and pagan practices, the entire season preceding Easter has been devoted to special religious instructions and worship. This period of preparation comes to be known as Lent. Interesting to know that Lent is a time when Christians are called to celebrate the life and work of our Saviour Jesus Christ in a more humble way.
Lent is a season of forty-six days observes by the Christian church with some amount of dedicated effort in brining a sense of renewal and meaning to the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The six weeks in Lent are dedicated for sober reflection and on the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him.
It is the Christian season for spiritual discipline through fasting, abstinence and works of charity. The patriarch of Constantinople, Saint John Chrysostom says: “there are those who rival one another in fasting and show a marvelous emulation in it, some indeed who spend two whole days without food, and other who rejecting from their tables only bread and water, persevere in this practice during the whole Lent”. The method of fasting varies widely, some Christian abstaining totally from food for considerable intervals, other abstaining only from luxurious food.
Lent could be the time we take kingdom risks for the sake of Christ’s eternal victory. This season we look at our lives, turn away from sin and change our hearts. The people of God, who are called by His name must humble themselves this time, and pray and seek the face of God, and turn from their wicked ways, then, He will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and heal their land.
Genuine renewal of our covenant with the Lord has always been what we look forward to in Lent. Lent is all about dying to the flesh. Being crucified with Christ, and giving Christ chance to live in you, as you begin to walk by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. Lent is a season of renewal, revival, reconciliation and growth in the spiritual formation. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which are idolatry. Lent is the forty days preceding Easter. It is the time of preparation for Easter by special devotions and discipline. The Priest puts on violet/purple vestments.
Both Lent and Christmas direct our mind to the original cause of our Lord’s coming into the world, and to the necessity imposed upon Christians of emancipating themselves through His power, from sins on account of which Christ died. Lent could be a period of fervent prayer without season, as well as period of genuine fasting. Lent could be just forty-days and night of trivial temptations about things that don’t really matter all that much. Or it can be a creative wilderness time to ask ourselves some deeper questions.
You see, we really do share the elemental temptation of Jesus. Our temptation is always to deny who we are, and however are supposed to be, and instead, keep trying to become someone else for all the “someone else” out there in the world. We are always tempted to quit being who we are instead of discovering the person God has always wanted us to be.
Being real or yourself is a hard work; it is tiring work. But it is interesting to note that when Jesus himself had finished his time in the wilderness, Angels came and took care of Him. Angels are waiting to care for us too in the midst of our temptations. But we have to risk some wilderness time first in order for that to happen. Keep looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. The Lord would surely be with you to the end.
*** Rev. Nelson Iluno holds post graduate degrees in Theology and Church History from Crowther Graduate Theological Seminary, Abeokuta, and is a graduate of West Africa Theological Seminary, Lagos. He is the author of A Glossary of Ecclesiastical and Liturgical Terms and Give to the Winds Your Fears, and has written numerous articles, contributed to daily devotional guides, and edits the Mothers’ Union annual magazine.
