The observance of Lent (from the Old English lengten or lengthening of Spring days) did not emerge until the 4th century. For the first three centuries, the period of fasting in preparation for Easter lasted two or three days. The prescribed forty day fast, suggested by the fasts of Moses (Exodus 34:28), Elijah (I Kings 19:8) and Jesus himself (Matthew 4:2), emerged by 325 A.D., as a time of preparation for baptismal candidates who would be initiated into the faith at their baptisms at the Great Vigil of Easter. During the early centuries, only one meal a day was allowed and meat, fish, eggs, cheese and milk were forbidden. Over the centuries, the Lenten fast has become more and more relaxed in the Western churches, so much so that Rome (in 1966) officially mandated a fast only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

The day before Ash Wednesday is called Shrove Tuesday. The name derives from the tradition of making a confession prior to the Lenten season of fasting and prayer (being “shriven”). Today, Shrove Tuesday is better known in popular culture by its French name, Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, which comes from the tradition of parading a fat ox through the streets of Paris on that day. In England, it is a venerable tradition to eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, a custom which is derived from the practice of eliminating, through consumption, all the eggs, butter and milk in the pantry. At the end of the Shrove Tuesday Feast, we “bury the Alleluia,” as this joyous word is not heard again until Easter. In worship, we refrain from saying or singing the Gloria by replacing it with the Trisagion (thrice holy) ( see BCP pg. 356), refrain from ringing all bells, and wear “sackcloth,” which in the Sarum (English) traditon was seen as a “non-color” over against the Roman custom of wearing royal purple. Some images (e.g. icons) in the church are draped as well, although crosses, the central symbol of Lent, especially those with a corpus as opposed to the triumphant “empty” cross, generally are not. Finally, we begin the service with the Confession (Penitential Order BCP pg. 351) to emphasize the priority of self examination during this season. Weddings and Baptisms are not celebrated during Lent, except for compelling pastoral reasons.

As we observed, there are 40 days in Lent but if you begin with Ash Wednesday (Mar. 1) and count to Holy Saturday (April 15), you will have too many days. That’s because Sundays are days in Lent but not of Lent. As the primary celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, Sundays are always feast days and whatever Lenten discipline you have adopted is “relaxed” on Sundays. (That’s right, you get back chocolate!)

The decision about how to keep the Lenten season should be a prayerful one. In recent years, it has been popular to claim that it is “better” to “take something on” rather than “give something up.” The spiritual journey and our spiritual discipline is not an either/or thing. Clearly, our Easter observance will be more powerful if we have kept a holy Lent, including self-denial.

“Your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit..glorify God with your body.” I Corinthians 6:19-20

One reason for the decline in the custom of fasting is a false view of human nature, a dualism really, which separates the physical body from the spiritual, the mind from the spirit. Such a false spirituality ignores the role of the body in the spiritual life.

The primary aim of fasting is to make us conscious of our dependance upon God. (Recall the children of Israel on the journey to the Land of Promise.) Real hunger, which produces tiredness and physical exhaustion, leads to a sense of inward brokenness and contrition. When we are always full, we feel autonomous and over-confident in our own self-sufficiency. Hunger creates in us a poor spirit aware of its dependence on God.

Outwardly, fasting (total abstinence) produces in our bodies a sense of lightness, wakefulness, freedom and joy. Many find that, after a time, they need less sleep, think more clearly and work more decisively. Fasting can be cleansing and can help eliminate toxins from our bodies and restore us to greater balance. But fasting is not a mere diet. Its inward moral dimension is marked by a converted heart and will. In returning to God, we fast not just from food but from sin.

“The fast should be kept not just by the mouth alone but also by the eye, the ear, the feet, the hands and all the members of the body.” - St. John Chrysostom

Fasting, separated from prayer and acts of compassion, is mere symbol and can even be destructive. In the Gospels and Early Church experience, prayer and fasting together cast out demons (Matthew 17:21, Mark 9:29), guide community discernment (Acts 13:3, 14:23) and prepare one to encounter God (e.g. Acts 10:9-17). Fasting helps us to identify with the involuntary hungry of the world. The tradition of almsgiving, giving of the money saved from fasting rather than feasting, to the widows, the orphans and the poor, goes back to the 2nd century. But almsgiving is not merely charity; it is, rather, to give not only what we have but who we are: our time, our talents, our selves.

And while the liturgical season has a certain somberness to it in its omission of sound and sight, bells and color, and while fasting and abstinence (symbolic fasting) is always a hardship and a difficulty, this season unfolds not in the harsh mid-winter but in the lengthening Spring. It is a season of joyfulness in which penitent grief brings a “joy-creating sorrow.” (St. John Climacus). From the Orthodox liturgy for the first week in Lent we read: “Grant me tears falling as the rain from heaven, O Christ, as I keep this joyful day of the Fast.” It is a paradox. It is a mystery.