Great Lent

What it is

Great Lent, or the Great Fast, is the most important period of fasting in the church year for many Eastern Christian denominations. Its Greek names mean Great Forty Days and Great Fast. The season prepares believers for Easter, the greatest feast of the year. It shares a root with Western Lent, and the two look alike in many ways, but they part company over how the date of Easter is calculated and over how the fast is kept, both in public worship and in daily life. Most years the Eastern date falls later, by up to five weeks; now and then the two coincide.

Origins and history

Fasting and prayer for forty days has roots in the Bible, and from that pattern the season grew. Moses climbed a mountain and stayed there forty days and nights, taking no bread or water, before the Ten Commandments were given to him. Elijah walked for the same span to Horeb, the mountain of God, and there the word of the Lord came to him. Jesus too went into the desert for forty days and nights; Satan tempted him there. Maximus, an early bishop of Turin, wrote that Elijah's long fast brought rain on a dry world. Early Christians kept a Black Fast before Easter, and old church rules allowed only bread, salt, vegetables and water during Lent, banning meat and wine.

Worship through the fast

During the fast the liturgical week runs from Monday to Sunday, and each week is named for the Gospel read at the liturgy on its closing Sunday. A special book, the Lenten Triodion, supplies the texts and steadily displaces the usual services. On weekdays the full Divine Liturgy is not served; the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts may be held instead, usually on Wednesdays, Fridays and feast days. Saturdays keep the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Sundays the longer Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, and evening prayer becomes Great Compline. In Greek practice a quarter of the Akathist is said over the first four weeks, the whole hymn on the fifth Saturday. Some Sundays are named for saints: John of the Ladder, Mary of Egypt, and Gregory Palamas.

What it means

Great Lent is meant to get a person ready, not only to remember an event but to share in the dying and rising of Jesus. The whole Byzantine Rite turns on the resurrection. Keepers of the season say it gives character room to grow, offers life back to the Gospel, and turns dullness into faith and good works. The aim is a purified heart, an enlightened mind, and freedom from sin. Eastern practice puts less weight on repentance than Western Lent and more on recovering the state that humanity was first made for.

How Great Lent is kept

Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox believers, monks and laypeople alike, keep the fast together. They eat nothing until evening, then take water and a meatless meal. Meat, fish, eggs, dairy, wine and oil are given up for the whole season. Wine and oil come back on Saturdays and Sundays, and on a few feast days; fish returns on Palm Sunday and on the Annunciation if it falls first; caviar is eaten on Lazarus Saturday. Meat and dairy wait until Easter. Married couples set aside sexual relations. Private prayer, confession, making amends and almsgiving rise alongside the fasting, because the tradition holds that more asceticism calls for more prayer.

When and where

Great Lent starts on Clean Monday, seven weeks before Pascha, and covers forty days in a row. Sundays count towards the forty, Holy Week does not. The fast closes on the Friday of the sixth week with the Presanctified Liturgy, but eating rules continue through Holy Week until the Paschal Vigil ends early on Easter morning.

The season belongs to the churches of Eastern Christianity. It is kept above all in the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox worlds, among them the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, the churches of Russia, and communities in Ethiopia and Syria.

What Great Lent means

Those who keep Great Lent describe it as a workshop for the soul. The forty days are a yearly chance to look at one's life, begin again, and grow more like Christ. Fasting and prayer are tools, not trophies: monks lengthened the fast over time, and laypeople took it up as well. The heart is purified, the mind enlightened, the body freed from sin, and the whole effort crowned by love of God and neighbour. Above all, the season turns towards the resurrection.

Days Great Lent is marked

Questions people ask about Great Lent

See also

Tisha B'AvA solemn fast day in July or August to mourn the destruction of the Jerusalem Temples and other Jewish tragedies.SigdAn Ethiopian Jewish holiday of covenant renewal, fasting, and longing for ZionMuharramThe sacred opening month of the Islamic year, observed through remembrance and fastingPalm SundayA Christian Sunday feast marking Jesus's entry into Jerusalem with blessed branches.

Good reading and sources

• Great Lent on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.