LENT

Lent is the reflective period of prayer and other activities to prepare Christians for Easter. Western churches begin their celebration on Ash Wednesday, which this year is Feb. 12. Easter falls on March 30 this year for Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. Eastern churches, using different calendar calculations, will begin Lent March 17 and celebrate Easter on May 4.

HISTORY: The 40-day period before Easter (not counting Sundays) has been established since at least the 4th Century. It apparently was modeled on the 40-day fast that Jesus was said to have undergone after his baptism. In the earliest periods of church history, fasting before Easter usually lasted a day or two. The English word Lent may have come from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten , “spring,” or the Dutch word lenten , “to make mild” (after winter’s harshness).

CELEBRATIONS: Lent has been traditionally considered a period of self-denial, which prompted uninhibited Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) carnivals before Ash Wednesday. Shrove Tuesday in England became a festive eating day when fats not allowed to be eaten during Lent were used up in cooking pancakes and other dishes. On Ash Wednesday, in Roman Catholic churches especially, worshipers’ foreheads are smudged with ashes by a priest who says, “Remember . . . that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” The ashes come from palms burned in the previous year’s Palm Sunday observances. Some churches, such as Pasadena First United Methodist, will offer Communion at selected periods on Ash Wednesday. During the entire Lenten period, many churches are sponsoring fellowship dinners or lecture series or both. FO