Lent
The penetintial season of Lent begins at sunset on the evening before Ash Wednesday [25 February 2009] and continues until sunset on Holy Saturday [11 April 2009], which is the day before Easter Day [12 April 2009]. Since Easter Day is a moveable feast, the dates for Lent vary from one year to the next. Information on the method for determing the date of Easter Day and the other dates dependent can be found on pages 880-885 of The Book of Common Prayer 1979. Even though the begining and ending dates of Lent vary from one year to the next, the length never varies. Lent is always 40 days long. But wait, you say, Holy Saturday is more than 40 days after Ash Wednesday. That is right. There are no Lenten Sundays. There are Sundays in Lent, but Lent is a season of fasting, and Sundays are aways a feast, and one never fasts on a feast, so the Sundays during Lent don't count as part of the 40 day length of Lent.
God has created people to be diverse and diverse people observe Lent in diverse ways. Some choose to give up something that might in some way be hindering their relationship with God, while others choose to take on an additional spiritual practice in order to strengthen their relationship with God. Then there are those who do both. For instance someone might give up the morning mocha and then donate the money saved to organizations such as Episcopal Relief and Development, United Thank Offering, or Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation. Others might take up the practice of saying Morning and/or Evening Prayer from the Daily Office or walking a labyrinth on a regular basis or reading the scripture readings from the lectionary.
The following explanation of Lent comes from Trinity, Santa Barbara via Diana Butler Bass' excellent book, Chrisianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith.
Lent is the season that invites us to ponder those things that keep us feeling separate from God. Inwardly, we may suffer from fear and guilt; outwardly we may remain silent in the face of injustice against our neighborhors. The Lenten journey of six weeks gives us time to take these things to God, trusting in God's wide mercy. At Trinity this year, we are focusing on spiritual practices that bring us closer to God, our neighbors, and our deepest sleves.
The liturgical colour of Lent is purple (symbolic of both royalty - the coming Kingdom of Christ - and penitence), though in some places rough linen with oxblood-coloured trim is used instead. This alternative to purple during Lent and the Sarum Blue during Advent developed, mostly around Sarum, now Salisbury, in England due to the once expensive cost of purple dye, which is how the colour purple became associated with royalty.
