{"id":430,"date":"2017-03-23T10:55:46","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T16:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/?p=430"},"modified":"2017-03-23T10:55:46","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T16:55:46","slug":"liturgygram-little-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elcablogs.fairnorthdigital.com\/worship\/430\/","title":{"rendered":"LiturgyGram: A Little About Lent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Definition<\/h4>\n

Lent is the forty-day season (excluding Sundays)\u00a0of penitence and preparation for the Three Days of Holy Week and Easter.<\/p>\n

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A Very Brief History<\/h4>\n

The term \u201cLent\u201d originally comes from the Anglo-Saxon word \u201clencten\u201d which means \u201cspring.\u201d This is the time, in the Northern Hemisphere, when the days are lengthening.\u00a0The season\u00a0began as period of fasting leading up to the Vigil of Easter. Catechumens, those preparing for baptism at Easter, would fast and spend days in intense preparation. For those that were already baptized, Lent was a period to be renewed in their faith by studying the Bible, the Creed and the Lord\u2019s Prayer.<\/p>\n

Although it was originally only a two-day period of preparation, Lent became a three-week preparatory period in the middle of the fourth century and then this was further expanded into six-weeks, or forty days. By the end of the fifth century, there was a desire to exclude Sundays from Lent since Sundays are always celebrated as feasts of the Resurrection. Thus Lent begins not on Sunday, but on Ash Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The current practice of forty days of Lent recall Jesus\u2019 forty-day fast in the wilderness after his Baptism (Matthew 4:2, Luke 4:1-2) as well as Moses\u2019 forty-day fast on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:28).<\/p>\n

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A Few Notes on Current Practice<\/h4>\n