Lent, give or take a couple days. (signs of the times).Quick: How many days are in Lent? If you said 40, well ... the real answer depends on whom you ask. "The number 40 is to be understood symbolically, not legalistically," says Michael Driscoll '''Michael Driscoll can refer to:
"Most Protestants say that Lent begins on Ash Wednesday Ash Wednesday, in the Western Church, the first day of Lent, being the seventh Wednesday before Easter. On this day ashes are placed on the foreheads of the faithful to remind them of death, of the sorrow they should feel for their sins, and of the necessity of and ends on the Saturday before Easter. That equals 40 days, if you subtract the Sundays," the Morning News reports. Catholics counted the same way until 1956, when Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (Latin: Pius PP. XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (March 2, 1876 – October 9, 1958), reigned as the 260th pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City, from March 2, 1939 until his death. reincorporated the baptismal connection to Easter that was dropped in the fifth century in favor of a penitential pen·i·ten·tial adj. 1. Of, relating to, or expressing penitence. 2. Of or relating to penance. n. 1. A book or set of church rules concerning the sacrament of penance. 2. A penitent. bent for the season. Now, for Catholics, Lent officially ends on Holy Thursday. So Lent is either 44 days, or 38 days if you don't count Sundays--which some don't because Sundays commemorate the festivity of the Resurrection. Lent is also 40 days for Orthodox Christians, who call it Great Lent or the Great Fast. Although they don't observe Ash Wednesday, Orthodox Christians start Great Lent 40 days before Palm Sunday and include Sundays. |
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