Lent

What it is

Lent is a set season in the Christian year that looks forward to Easter. Churches that keep it describe it as forty days long, a number that recalls the forty days of fasting recorded in the Bible. It is a time for prayer, for giving to the poor, and for going without things. The mood is sober rather than sad. Church altars are left bare and have few adornments, as is the custom during this season. In the West it opens with Ash Wednesday. In the East, where it is often called Great Lent, it runs without a break from Clean Monday to Lazarus Saturday.

Origins and history

The forty-day pattern comes from scripture, where Moses, Elijah and Jesus each go without food for that span. Jesus spends forty days in the desert, where Satan tempts him, before he begins to teach. Early Christians fasted before Easter, and the Apostolic Constitutions set out the plain food of the season: bread and vegetables, salt, and water, with flesh and wine forbidden. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote in 339 that the whole world kept a forty-day fast. Scholars offer three explanations for how the season reached its present length: a decision at the Council of Nicaea in 325, an Egyptian fast after the feast of the Theophany, or a blending of the two.

How it is kept

Those who observe Lent commit to a fast and give up something they enjoy, following Christ's own time in the desert. This personal giving-up is called a Lenten sacrifice. Many add a spiritual practice to their week as well. In Catholic, Anglican and Evangelical Lutheran churches the Stations of the Cross are prayed, often on Fridays, walking in memory of the path Jesus took to his death. The last week, Holy Week, opens with Palm Sunday and holds Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Passion Plays, often staged by several churches together, are performed during Lent and especially in Holy Week.

Food and fasting

Before the sixth century the usual Lenten fast was the Black Fast: nothing to eat or drink through the day, then one meal of vegetables taken after sunset. The Coptic Orthodox Church still keeps this form. Other churches ask for a lighter abstinence, giving up meat, wine and dairy at set times, and many believers set aside a favourite food until Easter. Sundays are not counted as fast days, because they belong to the Lord, though meat was once forbidden on them as well. Early canons allowed bread and salt alone during Holy Week.

Names around the world

Lent takes its English name from lencten, an Old English word for the spring season. Languages shaped by Latin name the season for its number: carême in French, cuaresma in Spanish, quaresima in Italian, păresimi in Romanian. Greek says Sarakostí. Elsewhere the name describes what people do. Czech, German and Norwegian speak of a fasting time, while Arabic, Syriac, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Hungarian call it the Great Fast. In India it is Charam Chalisa, the climax forty. Maltese keeps the older form Randan.

How Lent is kept

Lent opens on Ash Wednesday in Western churches, or on Clean Monday in Eastern ones. Worshippers take on a fast and let go of a pleasure or habit for the season. Prayer, giving to the poor and going without are held together as its three pillars. Fridays often bring the Stations of the Cross, and churches may stage a Passion Play. The season closes with Holy Week: Palm Sunday, then Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. In the West it ends on the evening of Maundy Thursday or at the Easter Vigil, with fasting kept until Holy Saturday evening.

When and where

Lent moves with Easter, so its dates change each year. In Western churches it runs from Ash Wednesday to the evening of Maundy Thursday, or to Holy Saturday, about six weeks. Eastern churches keep Great Lent as forty unbroken days, from Clean Monday to Lazarus Saturday. Which calendar a church follows, Gregorian, Julian, Coptic or Ethiopian, can shift the dates.

Lent is kept wherever Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Moravian and United Protestant churches are found, and also in some Anabaptist, Baptist, Methodist, Reformed and nondenominational congregations. It is kept widely in Europe and the Middle East, and among Coptic and other Oriental Orthodox communities in Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea, whose calendars give the season its own dates.

What Lent means

For those who keep it, Lent is a walk towards Easter. The forty days mirror Christ's time of testing, and going without food or comfort is meant to turn a person away from sin and back to God. Augustine of Hippo taught that fasting at other times is a matter of choice, while in Lent it becomes an obligation. The season is also tied to baptism, since Easter was long the favoured day for it, and the fast was once a way of preparing for the water.

Days Lent is marked

Questions people ask about Lent

See also

SigdAn Ethiopian Jewish holiday of covenant renewal, fasting, and longing for ZionNativity FastA forty-day Christian period of abstinence and prayer observed in preparation for Christmas.TimkatThe Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Epiphany celebrating the baptism of JesusEthiopian ChristmasThe Christian Nativity feast, marked by night vigils, white garments and field hockey

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• This Lent I will eat no food, to highlight the hunger all around usThe Guardian, Article
• Ethiopia: fasting for 55 daysDeutsche Welle, Article
• Catholics asked to abstain from meat for Friday penanceBBC, Article
• This Lent I will eat no food, to highlight the hunger all around usThe Guardian, Article
• Ethiopia: fasting for 55 daysDeutsche Welle, Article
• Catholics asked to abstain from meat for Friday penanceBBC, Article

• 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.