Lent

The season of forty days before Easter. The name is derived from the Old English word lencten or German Lenz for "spring."

The season is observed in different ways in different churches though the central theme of reflection on the passion of Christ and penitence runs through all of them. In many churches fasting is also enjoined.

Fasting in preparation for Easter was already attested by Irenaeus in the 3rd Cent. The practice may have begun as part of the preparation of candidates for baptism on Easter. The forty days period—suggested most probably by Jesus' forty days of fasting and prayer in the wilderness—became the norm in Western churches only by the 7th Cent.