40 days to Easter

Palm crosses from the previous year are burned to create the ashes. Photo: IStockPhoto
Palm crosses from the previous year are burned to create the ashes. Photo: IStockPhoto
Published February 28, 2014

Lent

Derived from the old English word for “lengthen” (as do the days in spring), Lent is the 40-day period of prayer, penitence and pondering before Easter.

The stations of the cross are a traditional Lenten observance. Photo: Nancy Bauer
The stations of the cross are a traditional Lenten observance. Photo: Nancy Bauer

Starting on Ash Wednesday, the seventh Wednesday before Easter, it commemorates Christ’s period of deprivation and sacrifice in the desert and recalls the events leading to his crucifixion.

Strict observers of Lententide may observe periods of fasting or at least abstain from festivities, certain foods and other indulgences, giving the money saved to charity.

Lent’s liturgical colour is a sombre purple, recalling the royal robe the Roman soldiers mockingly placed on Jesus.

Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day)

On the day before Ash Wednesday, Christians would go to their confessor to be shriven.

Competitors participate in the Great Spitafield pancake race in London, England. Photo: Michael Puche
Competitors participate in the Great Spitafield pancake race in London, England. Photo: Michael Puche

After being absolved (shrove), they would mark the day by indulging in—for the last time before Easter—richer foods given up for Lent, such as eggs, fats, sugar, milk, meat and fish. With the addition of some flour, a batch of pancakes made a thrifty catchall for a household’s pre-Lenten store of sugar, milk and eggs. As for pancake races, legend has it that a 15th-century woman was frying pancakes when she heard the tolling of the shriving bell. Off she raced to confession—apron, pan, pancakes and all.

Ash Wednesday

Rooted in Old Testament precedent (Job 42:6), ashes are worn as symbols of sin, sorrow and repentance. Lenten ashes are made by burning frond crosses blessed in the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebrations and are sometimes mixed with anointing oil. As presiders place ashes in the shape of a cross on the foreheads of congregants, they say, “Remember, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.” These words remind us of human ephemerality and of our origin with God breathing life into dust. For some, the ashen cross may also symbolize the way Christ’s crucifixion replaced Old Testament burnt offerings as atonement for human sin.

Author

  • Diana Swift

    Diana Swift is an award-winning writer and editor with 30 years’ experience in newspaper and magazine editing and production. In January 2011, she joined the Anglican Journal as a contributing editor.

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