Email This StorySpring break marks beginning of Lent
March 14, 2000Observance marks
40 days leading up
to Easter holiday
By BETH DOWNING
Reporter
During spring break, Baylor students, and many others around the world, began preparing for Easter by beginning a 40-day tradition called Lent.
The observance of Lent began March 8, on Ash Wednesday, and will continue through Easter Sunday. It is a time of spiritual fasting and reflection symbolizing the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert before his crucifixion.
Kevin Duggan, priest at the Catholic Student Center, said the Catholic Church acknowledges Ash Wednesday by placing a cross of palm ashes from the previous Palm Sunday on the foreheads of the people. He said it is a sign of moving into the new season.
'We ask people to fast Ash Wednesday and Good Friday,' he said. 'That means, one big meal that day and meager meals for breakfast and lunch.'
Duggan said they ask the church to abstain from meat. The act is to show devotion to Jesus Christ because of his death.
'It is a small symbolic act,' he said. 'It is a hope that people will feel a hunger and realize only God can fill the hunger within.'
Many Baptists do not celebrate Lent, said Dr. William Henry Brackney, religion department chair. 'We don't necessarily do without things just to focus,' Brackney said.
Instead, Baptists may participate in activities similar to Lent like January Bible studies and revival meetings.
'Traditionally, most Baptists do not observe Lent,' said Dr. Barry Harvey, full-time lecturer in religion. 'Recently though, some churches are rediscovering Lent and the whole cycle of the season in Christ.'
Duggan said denominations most likely to observe Lent are Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists and some Presbyterians and Anglicans.
'Some Catholics during Lent try to make additional sacrifices, other than what the church asks, and sacrifice something that will bring to mind Christ and His sacrifice,' Duggan said. 'Most Catholics would say Lent is a preparation for Easter.'
Brackney said Lent is a more vivid way of celebrating the coming Easter season. He said historically January was dark and the people needed renewal. It was a time for the people to take stock in their lives.
Harvey said it is similar to fasting,
you can do it to prove spirituality or to learn how appetite can bring spirituality.
'It is a time to refocus and look at the spiritual inventory of one's life,' Harvey said. 'All reasoning for doing this depends' on one's beliefs.
Stephanie De Los Santos, a Corpus Christi freshman, said Lent is significant in her life because it signifies her meager sacrifice in celebration of Jesus.
'It is important because it strengthens my own personal faith as well as my family and church,' she said.
Lent came from the old English word lencturn, Duggan said. Lencturn means a lengthening of daylight hours during spring.
Brackney said agriculture was so prominent for people in medieval Europe that during the time of harvest their bodies became physically and spiritually out of shape. He said spring was a time where many people took time to recover.
'For me, Lent grows out of an agricultural cycle of the year followed by winter,' Brackney said. 'In that time the church would go on pilgrimages to cathedrals, Canterbury and various holy places.'
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