Hi, do you know what Lent is? Do you follow the Lent? Do you know what we should do and what we shouldn’t do during this period? If you don’t, let me help you.
Lent is a religious festival that comes from the Catholic Church that begins on Ash Wednesday ( March 6) and ends approximately six weeks later, before Easter Sunday (April 18). Lasting for the 40 days prior to Easter in the Christian calendar. During Lent, Christians aim to replicate Jesus’ sacrifice in the desert for 40 days. The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer for Easter through prayer, doing penance, repentance of sins, almsgiving, in the Catholic tradition they do this and denial of ego. OnAsh Wednesday my host family took us to church to eat pancakes because they are associated with Shrove Tuesday. This is because they were a dish that could use up all the eggs, fats and milk in the house with just the addition of flour. There is also Good Friday, the day that Jesus died. It is now more common for believers to give up a particular vice for the duration of lent, such as confectionery, alcohol or smoking.
Even though In Goshen, most of the people are Mennonite so they didn’t follow this in the same exact way, but there is a deep meaning in there. I think Lent is not a period of fasting and penitence traditionally observed by Christians in preparation for Easter. Lent is also a season when we stare directly at our own mortality, and Lent has become a season not just for giving things up but for taking things on. Jesus unmarked death and exposed it for what it really is.
“Lent.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent.
“Food Traditions- Lent & Easter.” Cook For Your Life, 27 Feb. 2019, www.cookforyourlife.org/blog/lent-and-easter/.
–Xudong Sun