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So what's
so special about Lent, anyway?
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which always falls in the seventh week
before Easter. Lent is of course the time of the Christian year which
leads up to Easter. It is widely observed by Christians around the world
as a time of fasting or meditation. Why 'Ash Wednesday'? What do ashes
have to do with anything? This goes right back to the Old Testament
custom of putting ashes on one’s face or clothing as a symbol of
repentance or remorse, e.g.
Esther 4.1;
Jeremiah
6.26. When the early Church began to observe Lent as a period of
preparation for Easter, repentance and remorse played a key part.
Therefore the wearing of ashes was adopted as a proper external sign of
this inward attitude of remorse or repentance.
So the early
Christians, especially during the Middle Ages, used the first day of Lent
to impose ashes on the heads of the clergy and the people. In more modem
times, the ashes used come from the burning of the palm crosses that were
handed out on Palm Sunday during the previous year's Lent. Some
churches continue this theme of repentance by the symbolic use of purple
clerical dress during Lent.
What about the custom
of giving up things for Lent? In the past, Lent was a time for fasting,
because it is based on the period of 40 days spent by Jesus in the
wilderness Jesus fasted for 40 days, and so his followers were encouraged
to do the same thing. The precise nature of this 'fasting' varied.
In general, the western church understood 'fasting' as a reduced intake of
food, and eating fish rather than meat. It encouraged Christians to spend
time in devotional reading or attendance at church rather than fasting.
Malcom Harrison writes:
I wonder how many have
stopped to think where the word Lent comes from or, for that matter, what
it means. For those who are interested, the word Lent is short for lenten,
and comes from the ancient Germanic, ‘Langaztina’, meaning the
lengthening of the days of spring. In this country during the Middle Ages,
the word Lenten was the much used noun for spring which happened to be the
general meaning for ‘new life bursting forth’. Therefore we can
say, with reasonable certainty, that as far as we Christians are
concerned, it is the beginning of new life, the way Jesus paved for us
2000 years ago.
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