This month's letter is from our Curate, Sandra Hall
February 2012
Seasonal Reflections
The Christian liturgical journey towards Easter this year begins in February; the following reflections give some information about this period of time:
Shrove Tuesday (21st February 2012) is a term used for the day preceding Ash Wednesday.
The word shrove is the past tense of the English verb to shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins by way of confession and doing penance. During the week before Lent, sometimes called Shrovetide, Christians were expected to go to confession in preparation for the penitential season of turning to God. Shrove Tuesday was noted in histories as far back as 1000 AD. The popular celebratory aspect of the day was associated with releasing high spirits before the somber season of Lent.
The day is often known as Pancake Day. Making and eating such foods was considered a last feast with ingredients such as sugar, fat and eggs, whose consumption was traditionally restricted during the ritual fasting associated with Lent.
Shrove Tuesday was once known as a ‘half-holiday’ in England. It started at 11:00am with the signalling of a church bell. On Pancake Day, pancake races are held in many villages and towns. The tradition is said to have originated when a housewife from Olney was so busy making pancakes that she forgot the time until she heard the church bells ringing for the service. She raced out of the house to church while still carrying her frying pan and pancake.
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent; it marks the beginning of six and a half weeks of repentance, fasting, prayer and abstinence in preparation for the most important Christian festival of Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter. It can occur as early as February 4th or as late as March 10th. Ash Wednesday has never yet occurred on a Leap Year Day (February 29th), but it will in the year 2096.
Jesus spent forty days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, during which he was tempted by Satan. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this forty day liturgical period of prayer and fasting. Ash Wednesday itself is designated as a day of fasting.
During the Ash Wednesday service, the sign of the cross is made with ashes onto the foreheads of worshipers as a sign of mourning and repentance to God, this is how Ash Wednesday derived its name. It is a way of showing God that we are sorry for the wrong things we have done in the past year. Ashes were used in ancient times, according to the Bible, to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the penitent’s way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults. The ashes used nowadays are typically gathered after the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday are burned.
Lent recalls the events leading up to and including Jesus’ crucifixion. It is a season of reflection and preparation before the celebrations of Easter. By observing the 40 days of Lent, Christians replicate Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and withdrawal into the desert for 40 days.
Only a small number of people today fast for the whole of Lent, although some maintain the practice on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. It is more common these days for believers to surrender a particular vice such as favourite foods, drink or smoking. Whatever the sacrifice, it is a reflection of Jesus’ deprivation in the wilderness and a test of self-discipline.
Why is it called Lent? Lent is an old English word meaning ‘lengthen’. Lent is observed in spring, when the days begin to get longer. Both the Eastern and Western churches observe Lent but they count the 40 days differently. The Western Church excludes Sundays (which is celebrated as the day of Christ’s resurrection) whereas the Eastern Church includes them.
The churches also start Lent on different days. Western churches start Lent on the 7th Wednesday before Easter Day, Ash Wednesday. Eastern churches start Lent on the Monday of the 7th week before Easter and end it on the Friday 9 days before Easter. Eastern churches call this period the ‘Great Lent’.
May God bless your endeavours this Lent, whatever they entail.
I end with a Lenten prayer:
Christ, Who throughout these forty days
For us did fast and pray,
Teach us with you to mourn our sins
And close by you to stay.
As you with Satan did contend,
And did the victory win,
O give us strength in you to fight,
In you to conquer sin.
As you did hunger bear, and thirst,
So teach us, gracious Christ,
To die to self, and chiefly live
By your most holy Word.
And through these days of penitence,
And through your Passiontide,
And, evermore in life and death,
Christ, with us abide. Amen.
Sandra Hall, Curate
