Surviving six weeks of abstinance for Lent

by Agamda Egan
News Editor

Spring has arrived and the Lenten season is in full swing. Christians all around the world and at the University of La Verne are making sacrifices to celebrate the season.

Have you ever asked yourself why people walked around in public with a cross of ashes on their foreheads a few weeks ago? The answer to your curiosity is Ash Wednesday, which marks the first day of lent in the Western Christian Church. It is a Christian tradition to go to church on this day and have ashes put on one’s forehead.

Lent is a period of 40 days before Easter on the Christian calendar, “that is a preparation for Easter,” said Debbie Roberts, campus minister.

Lent is a time for prayer and penance. Few people nowadays fast for the entire 40 days, but some fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The most common observance that many Christians abstain from alcohol and certain foods for the entire period of lent.

“A lot of people do it in my church, they like the idea of sacrificing,” said Katie Ford,  freshman and a practicing Methodist. “I gave up something that is important to me, chocolate.”

Why 40 days? Forty is a significant number in Jewish-Christian scripture.

“Forty days symbolizes the 40 days that Jesus was in the wilderness,” Roberts said.

Both, the Eastern Orthodox and Western Church observe lent but with minor differences. The Western Church does not count Sundays throughout Lent. If they did that would be 46 days before Easter. Since they take Sundays off it is exactly 40 days. They follow the Julian calendar.The Eastern Church starts Lent on the Monday of the seventh week before Easter and ends on the Friday nine days before Easter, which is called “Great Lent.”  The Eastern Christians follow the Gregorian calendar. However, both churches apply the same concept, which mainly includes fasting and praying.

“I am very religious, but I start thinking about Lent a few days before it begins and decide what I am going to give up,” said Matt Young, ULV freshman and a practicing Catholic. “I look at it as a sacrifice.” This year, Young is sacrificing soda.

The technical parts of Lent may sound a little confusing, but the actual meaning and tradition is very sacred to Christians.

“Lent is important to me because God gave us his son to save (us from) our sins,” said Amber Lejay, freshman and a non-denominational Christian. “So, I am giving up something to clear away my sins.” Lejay said she is not fasting for the entire 40 days because it would be too difficult but she is giving up soda and profane language instead.