Knowra Lent Lent Lent is the Christian season of penitence and preparation for Easter, traditionally marked by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It lasts about six weeks, though its dates and practices vary among churches.
Easter : Easter is the Christian feast celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Lent is oriented toward Easter and prepares worshippers for its celebration.
Fasting : Fasting is the voluntary abstention from food or other goods for religious, ethical, or political purposes. Lenten fasting expresses self-discipline and penitence, with rules differing among Christian traditions.
Eastern Orthodox Great Lent : Great Lent is the Eastern Orthodox fasting season before Pascha, preceded by preparatory weeks and followed by Holy Week. Its calendar and fasting rules differ from the familiar Western pattern of Lent.
Jesus in the wilderness : The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is a Gospel episode in which Jesus fasts for forty days and faces temptation. Lent’s forty-day pattern is traditionally linked to Jesus’s wilderness fast.
Repentance : Repentance is the recognition of wrongdoing and a turning toward changed conduct or renewed relationship with God. It is the spiritual orientation expressed by Lent’s penitential practices.
Ash Wednesday : Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent in Western Christian churches, marked by penitential practices and the imposition of ashes. It opens Lent in Western traditions with a public sign of mortality and repentance.
Almsgiving : Almsgiving is the practice of giving money or material aid to people in need, often as a religious duty. Lenten almsgiving turns spiritual discipline outward into care for people in need.
Western Christianity : Western Christianity comprises the Latin Catholic and Protestant traditions that developed in western Europe. Its churches commonly observe Lent beginning on Ash Wednesday.
Paschal Triduum : The Paschal Triduum is the three-day Christian observance of Jesus’s passion, death, and resurrection, from Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday. Early Christian preparation for Easter centered on the solemn rites this period contains.
Baptism : Baptism is a Christian rite of initiation involving water and entry into the church. Lent can renew reflection on baptism, while some churches baptize converts at Easter.
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