God and Jesus
What is Lent?
Lent is the period of roughly six weeks before Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday, when Christians prepare for Easter through prayer, fasting and giving to others. It recalls the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness.
When is Lent?
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, forty-six days before Easter Sunday. Because the date of Easter moves, Ash Wednesday falls somewhere between early February and early March. The season runs through to Holy Week and ends as Easter arrives. Sundays are never fast days, and when you leave the six Sundays out, the forty-six days become the forty that give the season its length.
Why forty days?
Before Jesus began his public work, he spent forty days fasting alone in the desert, where he was tempted. Lent copies that pattern. Christians see it as a way of walking with Jesus through the weeks that lead to his death and resurrection.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.
The number echoes other stories in the Bible too: Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai, and the people of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness before entering the promised land.
Ash Wednesday
On the first day of Lent, many churches hold a service at which a small cross of ash is marked on each person’s forehead. The ash is made by burning the palm crosses from the previous year’s Palm Sunday. As the cross is made, the minister says either “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” or “Repent, and believe in the Gospel”. Anyone may come forward, and it is quite normal to see people with ash on their foreheads at work or on the bus that day.
One of the readings at those services is from the prophet Joel. In the translation used on this site, God’s personal name is printed as “Yahweh”, where most Bibles print “the LORD”.
“Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
Prayer, fasting and giving
Three practices have shaped Lent since the early centuries of the church: prayer, fasting and giving to those in need. They are meant to go together. Going without something makes room for God, and what is saved can be given away.
- Giving something up. Chocolate, alcohol, meat, coffee and social media are the usual candidates. The point is not the thing itself but the daily reminder, and the small discipline of saying no.
- Taking something up. Many people find it more useful to add something: reading one of the Gospels from start to finish, praying for ten minutes each morning, or joining a Lent course at a local church.
- Fasting. Catholics fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, eating one full meal, and do not eat meat on the Fridays of Lent. Other churches leave fasting to each person’s conscience.
- Giving. Many churches and charities run Lent appeals, and some people give away the money they save by going without.
Jesus had something to say about how to go about it: quietly.
Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face; so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
Shrove Tuesday and Pancake Day
The day before Ash Wednesday is Shrove Tuesday. The name comes from the old word “shrive”, meaning to confess your sins and be forgiven, which people did in readiness for Lent. It became Pancake Day because households used up their eggs, milk and fat before the fast. In other countries the same day is Mardi Gras, which means “Fat Tuesday”.
Mothering Sunday
The fourth Sunday of Lent is Mothering Sunday in the UK. It began as the day when people went back to their “mother church”, the main church of the area or the one where they were baptised, and servants were given the day off to visit their families. It has since become Mother’s Day, but churches still mark it.
Holy Week
Lent ends with its most intense week. Palm Sunday remembers Jesus riding into Jerusalem, Maundy Thursday his last supper, Good Friday his death, and Easter Sunday his rising. Churches hold services on each of these days, and visitors are welcome at all of them.
Do I have to keep Lent?
No. The Bible does not command it. Lent is a custom of the church, in place by the fourth century, and Christians keep it in very different ways. Some barely notice it. But it is a good season in which to explore the faith, because it is built for exactly that: slowing down, taking stock and turning towards God. Many churches run Lent courses that are open to anyone, and no one will mind if you have never been to church before.