How Is Lent Relevant Today? Part One - An Overview of the Christian Festival of Lent
How Is Lent Relevant Today? Part 1: An Overview of the Christian Festival of Lent The History of Lent LENT WAS FIRST MENTIONED in 325 A.D. by the Council of Nicaea, which issued twenty canons: detailed instructions relating to church life. The fifth of these canons dealt with Lent, a period of forty days of preparation leading up to Easter Sunday. Previously, Christians had spent just a few days preparing for the celebration of Christ’s resurrection. The Council of Nicaea chose a forty-day period based on Jesus’ time of fasting in the wilderness: “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” Matthew 4: 1-2 (NIVUK) The word for Lent in many languages, including Italian, Spanish and French, translates to ‘forty’, derived from the biblical period of fasting as mentioned in the above passage of scripture. The English word for Lent, however, has its roots in an Anglo-Sa