For Christians, Lent is a time for sober reflection before the celebrations of Easter. Ash Wednesday, when the sign of the cross is marked out in ash on your forehead, signals the beginning of Lent. It follows immediately after Shrove Tuesday – Pancake Day. This year it fell on 26 February.
Lent is also known as the season when you’re expected to give something up – a form of fasting, but typically less rigorous than the strictures of Islam’s Ramadan. Giving up something enables Christians to show their devotion to their faith along with strengthening it. This is because it is a small replica of the time when Jesus is said to have gone into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. Without food or water, he nonetheless resisted all Satan’s temptations.
The figure ’40’ is significant because it relates to three other Biblical milestones: Moses fasting for 40 days before he was given the 10 Commandments; the Hebrews spending 40 days in the wilderness before they reached the Promised Land; and the flood that Noah rescued all the animals from, which lasted 40 days and 40 nights.
Ashes on your forehead are a reminder of our mortality: “dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return”. But ashes, as in the wearing of ‘sack cloth and ashes’ are also a symbol of repentance, i.e. saying sorry to God and turning away from sin.
Lent is associated with the colour purple which represents the pain that Jesus suffered when he was crucified. Yet it’s also seen as a royal colour, so that one and the same colour also represents his heavenly status.
For many Christians, Lent finishes six weeks later on Holy Saturday (April 11 this year), when a new candle is lit to lighten our darkness and to symbolise the imminent resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If, that is, you happen to believe it…..
