what is Lent?

Question

(im an atheist, so i dont know).

like what are the beliefs behind it.
i only know that you have to give up something..
and does it have something to do with Fat tuesday or Ash wednesday?

Answer 1

Lent is the 40 day period before Easter. It is practiced by any liturgical church (including catholic, lutheran, episcoplain/anglican, united methodist, presbyterian usa, and united methodist) It doesn't include Sundays because those are seen as days of feasting and celebration. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday (today). The service of ashes is to remind us that we are mortal and we are sinful in nature and that we have a God that is forgiving and allows us to approach him and be forgiven. Lent is a time of preparation for Easter. It is 40 days to symbolize the time that Jesus spent in the Wilderness before his ministry. He was tempted, and so are we. The difference is that we do not ignore the temptations that we are faced with. Lent is a time of pentance. It's a time to remember who we truly are (mortal) and focus on deepening the relationship with Christ and realizing the sacrifice he made for us. It is a time of self-examination and reflection. In the early church, Lent was a time to prepare new converts for baptism. Today, Christians focus on their relationship with God, often choosing to give up something or volunteering and giving of themselves for others.

It ends with Holy Week. Holy Week is the week before Easter. It starts with Palm Sunday. That is the day that Christ came into Jerusalem and they laid palms on the Road. Thursday is Maundy Thursday. It celebrates the last supper. The Maundy comes from the word Commandment. In John's gospel, during the last supper, Christ gave the disciples a new commandment ("love one another as I have loved you"). Friday of Holy Week is Good Friday, the day that we remember the death of Christ.

Ash Wednesday is the day after Mardi Gras. That's the time of feasting before the season of fasting. Many symbols in Mardi Gras are Christian based. Example, the king cake has a baby in the middle of it. Jesus is the King of Kings. And he was brought into this world as an infant. The baby represents Jesus.

Answer 2

Fat Tuesday is the last day before Lent. That's when you get ready to give up whatever you're going to abstain from during Lent. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent. It ends on different days around Easter, depending on your denomination. It's lovely for keeping your mind on Christ's sacrifice, but shouldn't be seen as a commandment. I very much enjoy this time of year as I'm compelled to think more deeply about what our Lord has done for us, and the observation of Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, etc., are wonderful ways to express our love to our Savior. The Easter celebration is so much more glorious after a long period of solemn contemplation.

Answer 3

Lent is a 40 day liturgical season that begins the most sacred part of the Christian year. It begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Easter. Sunday's are not included in that 40 day period b/c every Sunday is a joyful celebration of the resurrection of Christ. During that time, Christians meditate with awe and thanksgiving on the great mystery of Jesus' atoning sacrifice - the salvation Gos offers to us sinners through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a time of fasting and penitence: reflection and awe.
The word Lent is derived from the Old English word, lencten, meaning "spring" - not only a reference to the season before Easter, but also an invitation to a springtime for the soul. 40 days to cleanse the system and open the eyes to what remains when all comfort s gone. 40 days to remember what it is like to live by the grace of God alone and not by what we can supply for ourselves.
On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, believers focus intently on their utter and complete sinfulness and the necessity of Christ' suffering and death for our salvation. It is a day in which "ashes" become a focal point of the service. Ashes are referred to many times in the Old Testament as a sign of sorrow, mourning, repentance, and mortality (2nd Samuel 13:19; Esther 4:1-3; Job 42:6 and Jeremiah 6:26). Ashes are also a sigh of the passing of the old and the reminder of a new spring that will arise.
The ashes come from the burning of the palm branches from the previous year's Palm Sunday service. According to ancient customs, the ashes are mixed with a small amount of olive oil an applied to the forehead or hand of each worshiper who wishes to receive them. This mark, in the sign of a cross, can be a powerful reminder of our sinful nature and total dependence of God for our forgiveness and salvation.
For some believers, the coming of Lent means preparing for some kind of fasting. These fasts typically take the form of abstaining from all or certain kinds of food on a particular day. In place of food fast, some Christians commit t give up a certain activity to take on some kind of charitable work or other added disciple(helping someone in need, prayer, fasting, etc. Matthew 6:1-18). If something is "given up" it is essential to remember that nothing we do through fasting, self-denial, or goos works can eve earn God's forgiveness or "pay Him back" for what He accomplished for us. Lent is not about our giving up something to please God. Lent is about what Christ gave up to pay the penalty for our sins - His life.


The Tuesday before Ash Wednesday is typically known as Fat Tuesday b/c it's the day people pig out or eat alot of or do alot of whatever they're giving up for Lent.

Answer 4

It's a period before the crucifixion and easter when you're supposed to give up something to show how badly you feel that Jesus died for you.

Fat Tuesday is the day before lent, when you let it rip because you're going to be a good christian and give up stuff for a few weeks. Ash Weds is your first day of the "giving up" time. Catholics get to wear a smear of ash on their face, like a cut-rate "Hot Topic"

Some common things that people give up: eating meat on Friday (which is why some catholics eat only fish on Fridays), alcohol, music, stuff like that. They usually give up pleasures or indulgences

Answer 5

Jesus fasted for 40 days in the desert and underwent tempations from the evil one, in the same way, the faithful are supposed to give up things they like for God in order to grow in holiness. Ashes are marked on our foreheads to signify our pledge and to strengthen our devotion to God during lent period. Eating meat is prohibited on Ash Wednesday, and every friday until Easter, also the thursday before EAster.

Answer 6

Coming from the Anglo-Saxon Lencten, meaning “spring,” Lent originated in the ancient Babylonian mystery religion. “The forty days’ abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess…Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz” (The Two Babylons).
“To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skillful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity—now far sunk in idolatry—in this as in so many other things, to shake hands” (The Two Babylons).

The Roman church replaced Passover with Easter, moving the pagan Feast of Tammuz to early spring, “Christianizing” it. Lent moved with it.

Lent and Easter are of pagan origins. True Christians stay clear of them.

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent

Answer 8

+ Lent +

The Catholic Church and many other Christians Churches follow the Biblical practice of Jesus Christ and the Jews in setting aside days where the entire Church fasts and prays as one in a attitude of constant renewal.

By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert and in spiritual preparation for the celebration of His Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

This season of penance is an intense moments of the Church's penitential practice and are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and charitable and missionary works.

+ Ashes in the Bible +

"O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes." (Jeremiah 6:26)

"I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes." (Daniel 9:3)

"When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes." (Jonah 3:6)

"And all the Israelite men, women and children who lived in Jerusalem prostrated themselves in front of the temple building, with ashes strewn on their heads, displaying their sackcloth covering before the Lord." (Judith 4:11; see also 4:15 and 9:1)

"That day they fasted and wore sackcloth; they sprinkled ashes on their heads and tore their clothes." (1 Maccabees 3:47; see also 4:39)

Jesus refers to the use of sackcloth and ashes as signs of repentance: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes." (Matthew 11:21, Luke 10:13)

+ Ash Wednesday +

As the beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday calls us to the conversion journey that marks the season.

As those preparing to join the Church enter the final stage of their preparation for the Easter sacraments, we are all called to walk with them so that we will be prepared to renew our baptismal promises when Easter arrives.

When we receive ashes on our foreheads, we remember:
+ Who we are
+ That we are creatures of the earth
. "Remember that you are dust"
+ That we are mortal beings
. "and to dust you will return"
+ That we are baptized
+ That we are people on a journey of conversion
. "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel"
+ That we are members of the body of Christ
+ That smudge on our foreheads will proclaim that identity to others, too

http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac0204.asp

With love in Christ.

Answer 9

Check you pockets.

Answer 10

It's that **** you find in the dryer that clings to your clothes.