The Season of Lent Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent

Courtesy The Island - By Rev. Fr. Thamil Nesan

Lent is a forty-day period before Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday. We skip Sundays when we count the forty days, because Sundays commemorate the Resurrection. Lent begins on 9 March 2011 and ends on 23 April 2011, which is the day before Easter, the most important festival in the Christian calendar.

In the Roman Catholic Church, Lent officially ends at sundown on 21 April (Holy Thursday), with the beginning of the mass of the Lord’s Supper. In most churches, the decorations are purple, the royal color, to prepare for the King.

By observing the forty days of Lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days. All churches that have a continuous history extending before AD 1500 observe Lent. The ancient church that wrote, collected, canonized, and propagated the New Testament also observed Lent, believing it to be a commandment from the apostles.

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