Connected with the observance of Easter are the 40-day penitential
season of Lent, beginning
on Ash Wednesday and concluding
at midnight on Holy Saturday,
the day before Easter Sunday. In many churches Easter is preceded
by a season of prayer, abstinence, and fasting. This is observed
in memory of the 40 days' fast of Christ in the desert. In Eastern
Orthodox churches Lent is 50 days. In Western Christendom Lent is
observed for six weeks and four days.
Lent
may be preceded by a carnival season. The origin of the word
carnival is probably from the Latin carne vale, meaning flesh
(meat), farewell. Elaborate pageants often close
this season on Shrove Tuesday, the day before the beginning of
Lent. This day is also called by its French name, Mardi Gras
(Fat Tuesday).
Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, gets its name from
the practice, mainly in the Roman Catholic church, of putting ashes on the foreheads of
the faithful to remind them that man is but dust.
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