ODDS & ENDS.

Lent is late this year because Easter is late--April 15 to be exact. Ash Wednesday is the last day in February, and Lent's first Sunday isn't till March 4. Christians find themselves doing a variety of things during Lent to prepare for Easter. "What are you giving up for Lent?" was an oft-asked pre-Vatican II question. I remember one wise guy (not me) in Catholic grammar school who, when asked by Sister what he planned to give up during Lent, responded: "Large-curd cottage cheese and watermelon." Sister, like Queen Victoria, was not amused. The class, myself included, unlike Victoria, was terribly amused. Do they even make large-curd cottage cheese anymore? And watermelon in winter?

Lent did not start out to be either a preparation for Easter or 40 days in duration. In Living Water, Sealing Spirit (Liturgical Press), Maxwell E. Johnson sets the record straight: "In its origins ... Lent has nothing to do with Easter at all but everything to do with the final training of candidates for Baptism." Good evidence suggests this baptismal training was about three weeks rather than the now familiar six weeks of Lent. Once Easter was decided upon as the right and proper time for Baptism, a period of baptismal preparation began to develop prior to Easter. The traditional 40 days of Lent quite possibly had its origins in a 40-day post-Epiphany fast practiced by the early Egyptian church.

Some liturgists take great delight in reminding us that Lent really doesn't officially begin until the first Sunday in Lent and ends on the Wednesday before Easter. Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday--the triduum--is its own liturgical season. If it were otherwise, Lent would be 46 days. No fuzzy liturgical math here. Some people like to quibble over Lenten Sundays also. Are they Sundays in Lent or Sundays of Lent?

More important, how did Lent get so disassociated with Baptism and so associated with giving things up in the hearts and souls of so many Catholics? Another unusual story, for sure. And that centered around reconciliation for public sinners who wanted to be reunited with the church. Their reconciliation was accomplished through public penance, at times wearing sackcloth and smeared with ashes, kneeling on the church steps during the Lenten season. The ritual act of receiving just a dollop of ashes on Ash Wednesday is a kinder, gentler reminder of those days of yore when public sinners could only be reconciled once in a lifetime. Second time around you were out in the cold forever. Penance eventually overtook Baptism as the major reason for Lent.

So where does that leave us today? The church still has fast and abstinence rules for people over 21 and under 59. Catholic calendars have the famous fish superimposed on every Friday's date during Lent. There is less talk about "giving up" and more talk about "giving to" during Lent. We hear the word almsgiving a lot more today. People who are involved in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, either as catechumens or as their sponsors, experience some of the original vibrancy and intention of this liturgical season.

Lenten bean counters, start the countdown. Pass the large-curd cottage cheese, please. Hold the watermelon.

PETER GILMOUR ([e-mail]) teaches at the Institute of Pastoral Studies of Loyola University Chicago.