49 Fun Facts About Lent

The forty days of Lent are modelled on which forty-day episode from the Bible?

Jesus fasting in the desert while tempted by Satan is the model; Moses and Elijah also fasted forty days, each as preparation for their work.

Where does the name of the season come from?

The word is lencten. It may refer to the lengthening of the days at that time of year.

Why are Sundays not counted as fasting days in Lent?

Sundays are always the Lord's Day, a weekly celebration of the resurrection, so they are never fast days; that is why the calendar count runs past forty.

In Roman Catholic practice, when does Lent end?

Catholic Lent ends on the evening of Holy Thursday, when the Mass of the Lord's Supper begins the three days that lead to Easter Sunday.

What are the three traditional pillars of Lent?

Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the three pillars, drawn from Jesus's teaching in Matthew 6; giving something up is a later popular custom, not one of the three.

What is the name for the practice of giving up a personal pleasure for the forty days?

A Lenten sacrifice is the voluntary giving up of a pleasure such as chocolate, alcohol or social media for Lent; it is a custom, not a church obligation.

How many days before Easter does Ash Wednesday fall?

Ash Wednesday falls 46 days before Easter Sunday: forty fast days plus the Sundays of Lent, which are not counted.

Where do the ashes used on Ash Wednesday come from?

Churches collect the previous year's palms and burn them. The cycle links one year's Holy Week to the next.

Which words are said as the ashes are imposed?

The minister says 'Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return', from Genesis 3:19, or alternatively 'Repent, and believe in the Gospel', while marking a cross on the forehead.

What does the word behind Pancake Day's older English name mean?

Christians were shriven before the fast began. The pancakes are a practical side effect of the same custom.

Why are pancakes associated with the day before Lent?

Rich foods had to be cleared out before the fast. That is also where pancake races come from.

Which English town claims a pancake race dating from 1445?

Olney in Buckinghamshire traces its pancake race to 1445, when a housewife supposedly ran to church with her frying pan in hand; the modern race was revived in 1948.

Which treat is eaten in Poland on Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before Lent?

Pączki, jam-filled doughnuts fried in lard, are eaten by the million in Poland on Tłusty Czwartek, Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before Lent.

What does 'Mardi Gras' mean in French?

Fat Tuesday refers to the last day of eating rich, fatty food before the fast begins the following morning.

What are the social organisations that stage New Orleans Mardi Gras parades called?

They are called krewes; the first, the Mistick Krewe of Comus, was founded in 1856 and staged its first parade in 1857, and each krewe has its own parade and colours.

What does the word 'carnival' come from, in Late Latin?

Carnival derives from the Late Latin carne levare, 'to remove meat', a name that announces the coming Lenten fast; Shrove Sunday to Shrove Tuesday are its last days.

Which carnival is recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest in the world?

Rio de Janeiro's carnival is listed by Guinness World Records as the world's largest, drawing around two million people a day to its street parties and samba parades.

Where did the first modern carnival parade take place, in 1823?

Cologne staged the first organised Rosenmontag parade in 1823, the start of the modern Rhineland carnival tradition later copied in Düsseldorf and Mainz.

What does the Sunday before Easter commemorate?

Palm Sunday commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event described in all four gospels, with crowds spreading cloaks and waving palm branches.

On which animal did Jesus ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday?

The gospels describe Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, as crowds spread cloaks and branches on the road.

Which trees have been substituted for palms in colder climates?

Box, olive, willow and yew branches were carried where real palms could not be had in northern Europe; in parts of Britain and Ireland the day was even called Yew Sunday.

On which day does Great Lent begin in Eastern Christianity?

Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, seven weeks before Pascha, and its first week is marked by the reading of the Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete.

How does the Eastern count of the forty days differ from the Western one?

The arithmetic is the mirror image of the Western scheme. Fasting continues through Holy Week regardless.

Which foods are most commonly given up during Great Lent?

The traditional Great Lent rule gives up meat, eggs, dairy and oil, with wine and oil allowed only on weekends, a far stricter regime than Western abstinence.

Which Sunday of Great Lent commemorates the restoration of icons in 843?

The Sunday of Orthodoxy, the first Sunday of Great Lent, commemorates the Triumph of Orthodoxy of 843, when Empress Theodora restored the veneration of icons after iconoclasm.

When does the Eastern fast finally end?

The Eastern fast runs through Holy Week and is broken only after the Paschal Vigil and its Divine Liturgy, in the small hours of Easter morning.

Which two days are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence for Catholics?

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are the only two days of obligatory fasting and abstinence for Catholics; the other Fridays of Lent require abstinence from meat alone.

From what age does the law of abstinence bind Catholics?

Canon 1252 binds Catholics to abstinence from age fourteen for life, while fasting binds only from majority, eighteen, until the start of the sixtieth year.

How much may a Catholic eat on a fast day?

On a fast day a Catholic may eat one full meal and two smaller ones that together do not equal a full meal; water and medicine are never restricted.

Under Catholic abstinence rules, which of these counts as meat?

Chicken counts as meat: the rule covers the flesh of warm-blooded land animals and birds, which is why poultry is forbidden on Lenten Fridays.

Which fast-food chain created the Filet-O-Fish in 1962 for Catholics on Lenten Fridays?

McDonald's Filet-O-Fish was devised in 1962 by Cincinnati franchisee Lou Groen, whose largely Catholic customers shunned hamburgers on Lenten Fridays.

Under Catholic canon law, abstinence from meat is prescribed on which days throughout the year?

Canon 1251 prescribes abstinence from meat on every Friday of the year unless a solemnity falls on it, though bishops' conferences may let the faithful substitute another penance.

What separates fasting from going without meat?

Abstinence generally means going without meat, but not dairy or fish. Fasting limits the amount eaten rather than the type.

In Milan's Ambrosian Rite, on which day does Lent begin?

Milan's Ambrosian Rite has no Ash Wednesday: its Lent starts on the Sunday after Ash Wednesday, so the Ambrosian carnival runs until the Saturday, four days longer than elsewhere in Italy.

Which ecumenical council's canons contain the earliest known reference to a forty-day Lent?

The First Council of Nicaea in 325 gives the earliest known reference to a forty-day season before Easter, in a canon on when provincial synods should meet.

Which of these churches does not observe Ash Wednesday?

The Eastern Orthodox Church has no Ash Wednesday and does not impose ashes at all; Lutheran, Anglican and Methodist churches all hold Ash Wednesday services.

Which practice happens in the last two weeks of Lent in some traditions?

Statues and crosses are veiled in violet cloth from the fifth Sunday of Lent, Passion Sunday; crosses are unveiled on Good Friday and other images at the Easter Vigil.

How many Sundays fall within the season of Lent?

Lent contains six Sundays, from the first Sunday of Lent to Palm Sunday; because Sundays are never fast days they are not counted among the forty.

Which spiced bun is traditionally eaten in Britain on Good Friday?

Hot cross buns, spiced and marked with a cross, are the traditional Good Friday food in Britain; the cross recalls the crucifixion and the spices the burial of Jesus.

What name is given to the three days from Holy Thursday evening to Easter Sunday?

The Easter Triduum runs from the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday through Good Friday and Holy Saturday to Easter Sunday, the summit of the liturgical year.

What does Quadragesima, the Latin name for Lent that gave Spanish its cuaresma, mean?

Fortieth is the meaning; the Latin also produced the French carême and Italian quaresima, while German and Czech simply say 'fasting period'.

Which word of praise is omitted entirely from Western liturgies throughout the season?

The Alleluia is dropped from every Western liturgy from Ash Wednesday until the Easter Vigil; the older Divine Office replaced it with 'Laus tibi, Domine, rex aeternae gloriae'.

The midweek day of Holy Week, recalling Judas's bargain to betray Jesus, has which nickname?

Spy Wednesday recalls Judas agreeing with the chief priests to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, 'spy' meaning one who acts in secret.

Medieval writer Giraldus Cambrensis reported which animal's tail being eaten as 'fish' during the Lenten fast?

Beaver tail passed as fish for its taste and colour, he wrote of Germany and 'the arctic regions'; Aquinas was similarly lenient on sugared comfits as medicine.

In the Lutheran Fastelavn tradition of Shrovetide, children beat a barrel said to represent fighting whom?

Satan is the enemy in the barrel; once it breaks the children collect the sweets inside, and they carry Shrovetide rods decorated with sweets and little presents.

What does 'laetare', the name given to the season's fourth Sunday, mean in Latin?

Laetare means 'rejoice', from the introit 'Laetare Jerusalem'; the day's lighter mood allows rose vestments, and in Britain it became Mothering Sunday.

Which pope's 1966 constitution Paenitemini cut Catholic obligatory fasting to just two days?

Paul VI's 1966 apostolic constitution Paenitemini reduced obligatory fasting to just two days; before it, Catholics aged 21 to 59 fasted on every weekday of Lent.

Eastern Orthodox Christians describe the season with which two-word phrase?

'Bright sadness', the phrase popularised by Alexander Schmemann's book Great Lent, renders the Greek charmolypê, joy-making sorrow, that Orthodox writers use for the season.

How many continuous days does the Ethiopian Orthodox pre-Easter fast last?

The Ethiopian Orthodox Great Fast, Abiy Tsom, lasts 55 days: an opening week called the Fast of Heraclius, the forty days, and Holy Week.