Lent

== Origin ==
The pattern of fasting and praying for 40 days is seen in the [[Christian Bible]], on which basis the liturgical season of Lent was established.<ref name="Hynes1993">{{cite book |last1=Hynes |first1=Mary Ellen |title=Companion to the Calendar: A Guide to the Saints and Mysteries of the Christian Calendar |date=1993 |publisher=Liturgy Training Publications |isbn=978-1-56854-011-5 |page=12 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Conte2001"/> In the [[Old Testament]], the prophet [[Moses]] went into the mountains for 40 days and 40 nights to pray and fast "without eating bread or drinking water" before receiving the [[Ten Commandments]] (cf. {{Bibleverse|Exodus|34:28|NRSV}}).<ref name="Conte2001">{{cite book |last1=Conte |first1=Jeanne |title=Lenten Reflections |date=2001 |publisher=Nova Publishers |isbn=978-1-56072-737-8 |pages=4–5 |language=en}}</ref> Likewise, the prophet [[Elijah]] went into the mountains for 40 days and nights to fast and pray "until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God" when "the word of the Lord came to him" (cf. {{Bibleverse|1 Kings|19:8-9|NRSV}}).<ref name="Conte2001"/> The early Christian bishop [[Maximus of Turin]] wrote that as Elijah by "fasting continuously for a period of forty days and forty nights...merited to extinguish the prolonged and severe dryness of the whole world, doing so with a stream of rain and steeping the earth's dryness with the bounty of water from heaven", in the Christian tradition, this is interpreted as being "a figure of ourselves so that we, also fasting a total of forty days, might merit the spiritual rain of baptism...[and] a shower from heaven might pour down upon the dry earth of the whole world, and the abundant waters of the saving bath might saturate the lengthy drought of the Gentiles."<ref name="Johnson2017">{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Lawrence J. |title=Worship in the Early Church: Volume 3: An Anthology of Historical Sources |date=14 July 2017 |publisher=Liturgical Press |isbn=978-0-8146-6328-8 |language=en}}</ref> In the [[New Testament]], [[Jesus]] went into the desert to fast and pray for 40 days and 40 nights; it was during this time that [[Satan]] tried to [[Temptation of Christ|tempt him]] (cf. {{Bibleverse|Matthew|4:1-3|NRSV}}).<ref name="Conte2001"/> The 40-day and night fasts of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus prepared them for their work.<ref name="Hynes1993"/>

[[Early Christianity]] records the tradition of fasting before Easter.<ref name="Kellner1908"/> The [[Apostolic Constitutions]] permit the consumption of "bread, vegetables, salt and water, in Lent" with "flesh and wine being forbidden."<ref name="Kellner1908"/> The [[Canons of Hippolytus]] authorize only bread and salt to be consumed during [[Holy Week]].<ref name="Kellner1908"/> The practice of fasting and abstaining from alcohol, meat and [[lacticinia]] during Lent thus became established in the Church.<ref name="Kellner1908"/>

In AD 339, [[Athanasius of Alexandria]] wrote that the Lenten fast was a 40-day fast that "the entire world" observed.<ref name="Nampon1869">{{cite book |last1=Nampon |first1=Adrien |title=Catholic Doctrine as Defined by the Council of Trent: Expounded in a Series of Conferences Delivered in Geneva Proposed as a Means of Reuniting All Christians |date=1869 |publisher=P. F. Cunningham |page=688 |language=English}}</ref> [[Saint Augustine of Hippo]] (AD 354–AD 430) wrote that: "Our fast at any other time is voluntary; but during Lent, we [[Christian views on sin|sin]] if we do not fast."<ref name="Keenan1899">{{cite book |last1=Keenan |first1=Stephen |title=A Doctrinal Catechism: Wherein Divers Points of Catholic Faith and Practice Assailed by Modern Heretics, are Sustained by an Appeal to the Holy Scriptures, the Testimony of the Ancient Fathers, and the Dictates of Reason, on the Basis of Scheffmacher's Catechism. by the Rev. Stephen Kennan |date=1899 |publisher=P.J. Kenedy |pages=178–179 |language=English}}</ref>

Three main prevailing theories exist on the finalization of Lent as a 40-day fast prior to the arrival of Easter Sunday: First, that it was created at the [[First Council of Nicaea|Council of Nicea]] in 325 and there is no earlier incarnation. Second, that it is based on an [[Christianity in Egypt|Egyptian Christian]] post-[[theophany]] fast. Third, a combination of origins [[syncretism|syncretized]] around the Council of Nicea.<ref name="Russo2013">{{cite web |last1=Russo |first1=Nicholas V. |title=The Early History of Lent |url=https://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/193181.pdf |publisher=The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University |date=2013 |access-date=17 February 2021}}</ref> There are early references to periods of fasting prior to [[baptism]]. For instance, the ''[[Didache]]'', a 1st or 2nd-century Christian text, commends "the baptizer, the one to be baptized, and any others that are able" to fast to prepare for the sacrament.<ref>{{CathEncy |wstitle= Didache| author=John Chapman}}</ref>

For centuries it has been common practice for baptisms to take place on Easter, and so such references were formerly taken to be references to a pre-Easter fast. [[Tertullian]], in his 3rd-century work ''On Baptism'', indicates that Easter was a "most solemn day for baptism." However, he is one of only a handful of writers in the [[Christianity in the ante-Nicene period|ante-Nicene period]] who indicates this preference, and even he says that Easter was by no means the only favored day for baptisms in his locale.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Bradshaw |first1=Paul F. |title=Diem baptismo sollemniorem: Initiation and Easter in Christian Antiquity |encyclopedia=ΕΥΛΟΓΗΜΑ. Studies in honor of Robert Taft, S J. |editor1-last=Carr |editor1-first=E. |editor2-last=Parenti |editor2-first=S. |editor3-last=Thiermeyer |editor3-first=A.A. |editor4-last=Velkovska |editor4-first=E. |series=Analecta Liturgica, 17 |location=Rome |publisher=Studia Anselmiana |year=1993}}</ref>

Since the 20th century, scholars have acknowledged that Easter was not the standard day for baptisms in the early church, and references to pre-baptismal periods of fasting were not necessarily connected with Easter. There were shorter periods of fasting observed in the pre-Nicene church ([[Athanasius]] noted that the 4th-century Alexandrian church observed a period of fasting before Pascha [Easter]).<ref name="Russo2013"/> However it is known that the 40-day period of fasting – the season later named Lent – before [[Eastertide]] was clarified at the Nicene Council.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gassmann|first1=Günther|last2=Oldenburg|first2=Mark W.|title=Historical Dictionary of Lutheranism|date=10 October 2011|publisher=Scarecrow Press|language=en|isbn=9780810874824|page=229|quote=The Council of Nicea (325) for the first time mentioned Lent as a period of 40 days of fasting in preparation for Easter.}}</ref> In 363-64 AD, the [[Council of Laodicea]] prescribed the Lenten fast as "as of strict necessity."<ref name="Nampon1869"/>