RELIGION / JOHN DART : Periods of Lent, Ramadan Overlap : Observances: Christians, Muslims and Jews have key holidays coming up. For many, the time involves reflection and abstinence.

Lent and Ramadan, the most important periods of reflection and abstinence for Christians and Muslims, will overlap in the weeks ahead, inviting comparisons of the meaning of fasting in this interfaith age.

Although the late Cardinal Timothy Manning of Los Angeles once began a pre-Lenten statement with an apparently unintentional quip, “Lent is fast upon us,” the religious requirements of the Christian penitential period pale in comparison to Ramadan.

Muslims today begin a lunar month of abstaining from food and drink in daylight hours, as well as forgoing sex during Ramadan and increasing their acts of charity and devotion.

Followers of Islam typically rise daily about 4:30 a.m. to eat a modest meal, say pre-dawn prayers, then go back to bed or to work, depending on circumstances. All Muslims who have reached puberty--with exceptions for pregnant women, the ailing and the elderly--are expected to avoid food and drink until sunset, when traditionally a few dates and water are taken to break the fast. Prayers are said, and a complete meal is eaten.

Roman Catholics, Protestants and members of other Western churches Wednesday will mark the start of the 6 1/2-week Lenten period before Easter. But it is primarily the Roman Catholic Church that maintains rules for fasting and abstinence during Lent.

Devout Catholics between 18 and 59 years of age are expected to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, but that is defined as eating only one full, but meatless, meal on those days. Two other meatless snacks may be eaten on those days but together they should not equal a full meal, according to church law.

In addition, Catholics 14 and over are instructed to abstain from meat on all Fridays during Lent.

Within Episcopal, Lutheran and other major denominations, Lenten abstinence from meat, food and other pleasures has all but faded from practice, clergy say. The emphasis is instead on adding something to one’s spiritual routine.

“The modern understanding in the Episcopal Church is to take on something new--Bible studies, works of charity, more prayer,” said the Rev. Lynn Jay of Santa Clarita, dean of the Episcopal parishes in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.

“Parishes usually have a Lenten study on a particular night of the week, often preceded by a simple dinner of soup and bread,” Jay said.

The weekly soup and service during Lent has become popular in Lutheran circles, said Pastor Lawrence Baietti of Christ the Shepherd Lutheran Church in Altadena.

“Actually, we will join with the Episcopal congregation in Altadena every Wednesday, alternating at each other’s church for a light soup supper and worship,” said Baietti, who chairs the ecumenical committee for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Los Angeles-based synod.

Baietti’s church will begin Lent, as will Episcopal and Catholic churches, with services Wednesday. In Catholic parishes especially, ash is smudged on the forehead of the worshiper.

“The emphasis is on one’s mortality, the uncertainty of life and reliance on the mercy of God,” Baietti said. “Of course, the earthquake a couple of weeks ago already reminded us of our frailty.”

Lenten observances vary widely in other Protestant churches, often with little note taken of Ash Wednesday and not much attention to tradition until Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, which is March 27 this year.

The 1,200-member Glendale United Methodist Church will hold a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper next week, summoning up an old English tradition of using up the eggs, milk, fat and butter in the pantry before the start of Lent.

“We really thought of it as an opportunity to have fun,” said Sheila Kane, diaconal minister of Christian education at the church. “During Lent, we aren’t asking people to give up things, but we are planning more Bible study and asking people to pray 10 minutes daily for our church’s ministry and for each other.”

Lenten traditions have even less hold on Baptist and Pentecostal churches, which tend to look for biblical precedents rather than historic church practices for inspiration.

Yet pastors such as the Rev. Jack Hayford of the Church on the Way have rediscovered and recommended the spiritual discipline of fasting, if only on a modest scale, regardless of the church season.

“Nothing turns off vital Christians quicker than programs of legalistic demands or ‘churchified’ efforts at ritual behavior,” Hayford said. When fasting is a discipline linked closely to prayer, the practice is no longer seen as “a relic of dead traditionalism,” he said.

In fact, the legal requirements of Islam’s month of Ramadan and Catholicism’s Lenten rules are accompanied by a rich tradition of increased devotion and community gatherings, religious leaders say.

The Islamic Center of Northridge, for instance, will have Koran readers recite from memory the entire Islamic scriptures and lead special nightly prayers during Ramadan. It is also a time of increased charity toward the poor and homeless, said Ahmed El-Gabalawy, a representative of the center.

For some Catholics, Lent means extra devotional exercises in the parishes and sometimes a decision to go out of one’s way to visit the sick and elderly, said Father Gregory Coiro, public affairs director of the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese.

In that vein, Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Encino is planning an ecumenical series of weekly services that take their cue from the 58th chapter of Isaiah, in which fasting is defined not so much as pious abstinence but helping the unfortunate.

The center will hold an hourlong service of prayers, with donations going to local religious social ministries, starting at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 21 and continuing each Monday of Lent. Among the beneficiaries will be the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council for earthquake relief efforts, the Blythe Street Project for outreach to gang youths, and East Los Angeles’ House of Ruth for a women’s and children’s shelter.

Upcoming Holy Days

RAMADAN (Muslims)

The lunar month of fasting begins today, corresponding with astronomical data and the Friday night sighting of the first sliver of the crescent moon. The approximately 28-day period commemorates the Islamic tradition that Prophet Mohammed began to receive divine revelations set down in the Koran, the Muslim scriptures, in the month of Ramadan. Most Muslims will celebrate the end of the fast with Eid al-Fitr, or the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast, on March 13.

LENT (Catholics, Protestants)

The reflective period leading up to the Christian Holy Week and Easter, when Christians recall the gospel accounts of Jesus’ trial, crucifixion and resurrection, begins for Western Christendom on Ash Wednesday, this year Feb. 16. Easter is April 3.

LENT (Eastern Orthodox)

Eastern Christians, notably those with church roots in Slavic countries and the Middle East, begin the observance of Great Lent on a Monday. This year, it will be March 16. Easter is May 1.

PASSOVER (Jews)

The eight-day Jewish holiday, commemorating the deliverance of the ancient Hebrews from bondage in Egypt, will begin at sundown March 26.