What is the difference between lent and easter

Lent was a season of fasting and repentance. Simple Ways to Observe Lent as a Family. Five simple Lent and Easter activities for families. Use one or a few of these ideas to connect and grow this season. For those of us who do practice fasting, prayer and almsgiving during these 40 days before Easter, coming up with a feasible fast for a child in which a deeper meaning can be taught is tricky!

What is Shrove Tuesday? Have you ever wondered why people tend to eat pancakes on the day before Ash Wednesday? Choosing Structure as Freedom: Reflections on Lent. What are the Days of Holy Week? Here are a few ideas about how to talk to your kids about Palm Sunday. What is Palm Sunday? What is Maundy Thursday? They had gathered for Passover Supper, which set an important context for what Jesus did at the Last Supper.

What is Good Friday? Services for Good Friday tend be somber, even though we know that Jesus rose from His death three days later. The Holy City had become a popular pilgrimage site. On return home they introduced some of these rituals to their local churches. A number of them, such as the veneration of the cross, survive to this day.

The origins of the season of Lent are much less clear, though practices of fasting, preparation for baptism and the system of public penance certainly all played their part. There seems to have been great diversity as to when baptism was celebrated. In some places it was after the feast of the Epiphany, in others at Eastertime, in others again on the feast of Pentecost or at another time of the year. With the rise of infant baptism the adult catechumenate fell into disuse, as did the practice of public penance.

The eventual outcome of this process was that Lent emerged as a season of repentance and renewal for the whole community prior to Easter, though traces of its earlier role remained. Decline and renewal. By the time the Missal of Pius V was published in the liturgies of the Triduum had lost much of their significance. The Mass on Holy Thursday at which the bishop consecrated the holy oils was poorly attended, and the washing of feet took place after the Mass.

The trend to an earlier time can be traced back to the 7 th century until the morning time was mandated in the Missal of The impetus of the 19 th and 20 th century liturgical movement, however, led to the reform of the Vigil and Holy Week in the s, foreshadowing the comprehensive renewal authorised by the Second Vatican Council.

The paschal triduum, extending from Holy Thursday evening to the evening of Easter Sunday, has been restored to its pride of place at the heart of the liturgical year. It is the centre-piece between six weeks of preparation Lent and seven weeks of celebration Easter. All this enables the whole Christian community to be immersed in the whole saving mystery of Jesus Christ: his ministry, suffering, death and resurrection, glorification and sending of the Holy Spirit.

The following pastoral notes on the liturgies of Lent, the Triduum and Easter are offered in order to assist parishes celebrate them well. They do not, in fact cannot, cover every detail. Local communities and liturgical teams must take their particular circumstances into account and make their own choice of the various options available. However the combination of history, general principles and select details presented here can serve as a helpful catalyst in the process of preparing these all-important celebrations.

The notes assume that the parish has a functioning liturgical planning team equipped with the personnel, knowledge, experience and skills needed for the preparation of worthy liturgical celebrations. A further and indispensable task for the team is the evaluation of the liturgies once they have been celebrated. The purpose of this is wholly positive. The questions to be asked are: what worked well?

The aim of the exercise is to enhance the worthy celebration of the mysteries of faith for the sake of the whole worshipping community. It should be completed while the experience is still fresh in people's minds. It must be noted that two major dimensions of these liturgies are referred to only in passing: music and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults RCIA. This is a reflection of their importance, not the opposite. They are of such significance that they require explicit treatment in their own right, beyond the scope of this resource.

The same goes for the scripture readings and prayers. Commentaries on these, especially the readings, are readily available elsewhere. As noted in the introduction, the origins of Lent are rather obscure. A number of developments took place roughly in the period from the 5 th to the 7 th century, including:. There are competing claims within the current Roman Missal as to the first day of Lent. The practice of veiling the cross and statues during Lent originated in the Middle Ages.

This tradition has been maintained as a contemporary option, to be observed from the 5 th Sunday of Lent through to the Vigil, except for the cross once it is unveiled on Good Friday. In Australia Lent has been given an additional social justice focus by the Project Compassion campaign of prayer, formation and fund-raising.

Ash Wednesday. In spite of the fact that Ash Wednesday has never been a day of obligation, it is a day when many Catholics flock to Mass to be marked with the ashes of repentance and mortality.

Along with Good Friday, it is a day of fast and abstinence. Since the post-Vatican II revival of the catechumenate, the 3 rd , 4 th and 5 th Sundays of Lent have been provided with prayers for the scrutinies of the elect, reflecting the Year A gospel text for the day:.

Both the parish community and the elect along with their godparents need to be prepared in advance for this often unfamiliar rite. Enough time needs to be allowed for the preparation of Orders of Service for the people for the major ceremonies if that is determined to be desirable. Combining the Orders of Service for the Paschal Triduum in a single booklet would help communicate the fact that the rites of the Triduum constitute one liturgy celebrated over three days.

As this is a cathedral liturgy presided over by the bishop, it falls beyond the scope of these pastoral notes. The weekdays of Holy Week are well suited for the final preparation of the elect for Christian initiation and for the celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation by the already baptised.

As evening falls on Holy Thursday we cross a significant threshold. Dusk ushers in the great three days of Christian observance, the Paschal Triduum. Lent has come to a quiet end after a flurry of liturgical activity: Palm Sunday celebrations, the Chrism Mass, reconciliation services and the final preparations of catechumens and candidates for initiation.

Most people know Lent as a time to fast from something — chocolate, alcohol, sex, and social media are all popular choices in the US. LifeWay Research, which studies subjects of interest to churchgoers and pastors, found that in , 61 percent of Catholics planned to fast during Lent, while 28 percent of evangelicals intended to fast. In , the same study found that only 16 percent of evangelicals planned to fast during Lent.

Protestants in particular tend to avoid specific church-mandated practices when it comes to fasts we can probably thank Martin Luther for that , so practices vary widely.

Some Catholics keep a more rigid version of the fast. The most notable and well-known practice is abstaining from eating meat on Fridays, sometimes in addition to giving up something else for Lent.

But even less strict Catholics may fast from meat on Fridays during Lent, and all Catholics are encouraged to skip meat on Good Friday. Fish is permitted, for reasons that are fascinating and somewhat arcane, which is why those who went to Catholic school often grew up eating fish at lunch on Friday, and why church-hosted fish frys are a popular Friday occurrence during Lent.

Prayer and almsgiving giving extra money to the poor are also emphasized during Catholic Lent observance. Orthodox Christianity is far more strict about the fast.

In fact, strict Orthodox observers fast from meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, olive oil, and alcohol every Wednesday and Friday. During Lent, a fairly complicated fast is observed: Every weekday, Orthodox Christians abstain from all of those products. Additionally, during the first week of Lent, worshippers may fast entirely from Monday morning through Wednesday evening, and then observe the strict fast the rest of the week and throughout the Lenten period.

Wine and oil are added on weekends in the second through sixth weeks. And Orthodox worshippers may fast from Thursday night through Saturday night before Easter.

Observance can vary from individual to individual. Lenten practices are why we have Easter eggs — the faithful would abstain from eggs and dairy during Lent, but in the days before refrigeration, the dairy then would spoil.

Eggs, however, keep fresh much longer and would still be good when it was time to break the fast. But your purpose for fasting will probably differ, depending on your motivation to participate. Christianity is hardly the only religion in which fasting is part of the yearly observance. Muslims observe a month of sunrise-to-sunset fasting during Ramadan , and Jewish people may also mark high holidays with fasts, particularly Yom Kippur.

Fasting is a big part of Hinduism , Buddhism , and many other religious traditions. Why fasting? Fasting reconnects the body to the emotions, mind, and soul, often by interrupting our autopilot mode and recognizing the ways we self-medicate that might be destructive to our souls.

If everyone celebrates Lent the way they celebrate Christmas, it could just seem like another way Christianity is taking over. But I think nonbelievers reclaiming the best parts of religious traditions does the opposite, and reestablishes American morals outside of organized religion.

I still give up sweets for Lent every year, and sometimes alcohol or meat. I take it seriously. I look forward to it as much as I do the sun melting the snow. And when Easter Sunday comes April 5, the chocolate bunny I buy will taste better than it ought to. Lent is meant to be uncomfortable. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding.

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