Lent Through the Ages

Lent, the period of six weeks leading up to Easter is one of the most important dates in the Christian calendar. This year Ash Wednesday falls on Wednesday 5 March and for the next forty days, Christians all over the world prepare to commemorate Jesus’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday through prayer, reflection, and fasting. In this article we will look at some of the practices associated with this time of year.

The tradition of Lent is based on the suffering and temptations that Jesus went through during his stay in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. 40 is an important number for the Christian religion, as it is closely associated with important biblical events.

The day before Lent starts is Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Tuesday. This day was traditionally the last chance to use up the foods Christians would not be eating during Lent, such as such as meat, fish, eggs, fats, milk, and sugar. Shrove comes from the verb 'to shrive' which means to confess sins. The overindulgence in rich foods on Shrove Tuesday also gave rise to the alternative name of "Mardi Gras" meaning "Fat Tuesday" in French, which has grown into a carnival in Louisiana, USA.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent with many Christian churches holding services during which the congregation are marked on the forehead with a cross of ashes. This tradition goes as far back to the second century when Lent was a period of preparation of candidates for baptism and a time of penance for grievous sinners who were excluded from receiving Holy Communion and were preparing for their restoration. As a sign of their penitence, they wore sackcloth and were sprinkled with ashes.

This form of public penance began to die out by the 9th century. It became customary for all the faithful to be reminded of the need for penitence and of their own mortality by receiving a memento mori in the form of ashes, either sprinkled on top of worshippers’ heads or marked in the shape of a cross on their foreheads, on the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday.

Historians generally agree that the 40-day period before Easter, known as Lent, emerged shortly following the Council of Nicaea (now Iznik in Turkey) in 325 AD. Earlier observances of Lent seem to have focused particularly on the practice of fasting. The actual 40-day period varied region-to-region, even church-to-church; some including weekends, some not; some fasting Sundays, others not. However, in every case, fasting rules were strict. One meal a day was allowed in the evening, and meat, fish, eggs, and butter were forbidden.

By the 800s, the strictness of the fast began to relax. By the 1400s, Christians had begun eating the one meal earlier in the day and later began to add a smaller meal to keep up their strength for work. 

Eating fish was allowed, and later eating meat was also allowed through the week except on Ash Wednesday and Friday. Dispensations were given for eating dairy products if a pious work was performed, and eventually this rule was relaxed totally. However, the abstinence from even dairy products led to the practice of blessing Easter eggs.

Over the years, Lent has become less strict in almost every western tradition. In the Catholic Church, for example, the number of obligatory fasting days decreased from six days a week to three, and then eventually, to just two in the whole season of Lent: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday (having only one full meal a day and smaller snacks to keep up one’s strength). 

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, the last week of Lent leading up to Easter, which finishes on Easter Sunday, the day on which Jesus rose from his tomb.

Today giving something up, such as sweets, alcohol, or social media has become the focus of Lent, but for all these changes, the tradition of Lent is still largely recognizable to what it was nearly 2,000 years ago.

Newry and Mourne Museum is open Tuesday – Saturday 10.00 am – 4.30 pm. 

They currently offer free tours on Wednesdays at 2.00 pm. These must be booked in advance by calling 0330 137 4422 or email museums@nmandd.org for further information

Visit the Museum website at www.visitmournemountains.co.uk