Lent
LENT
BASIC R.C. BELIEF The name given to the 40 week days before Easter, starting Ash Wednesday. During Lent Roman Catholics are supposed to undergo some voluntary privation and penance in anticipation of Christ’s sufferings.
CHRISTIAN COMMENT There is no scriptural warrant for such a period; many Roman Catholics don’t give up things of consequence, and those who do feel this aids in salvation. This concept of privation has resulted in pre-Lenten festivals: Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and carnival (carne val, farewell to meat).
In pagan Babylon, 40 days were observed weeping for Tammuz (Nimrod), that he would rise from the dead and cause Spring to begin. With other pagan customs, this became a part of the Church. Msgr. O’Sullivan in EXTERNALS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (p. 209) says, “From about the 4th century, Lent became a fast of forty days.”