Origins of Lent
The name “Lent” comes from the Saxon word Lenctentid, used for the month of March in signifying springtime and the lengthening of days. The idea of a fast before Easter, however, goes way back before Christianity reached the Saxons, to the first centuries of the Church. It seems to have sprung up spontaneously, albeit only practiced for two or three days before Easter at first.
The earliest known reference to a forty-day fast was in 325 A.D. as one of the “canons” (church rules) arising from the Council of Nicea, where church leaders form all of the then-Christian world met to thrash out a mutual understanding of what they believed. It became a common practice that for forty days only one meal a day was eaten, with no meat or fish. (As to whether chocolate was allowed, see “The Curious History of Chocolate” next week!)
The forty days, of course, is an echo of Christ’s time of fasting in the wilderness. But Christ never commanded his followers to fast, and neither did the apostles. (Jesus did recognize it as a common practice, however, saying “when you fast” rather than “if you fast in Matthew 6:16).
So why did the practice arise? The main reason seems to be that in the early Church, baptisms only happened once a year, at Easter. Lent was instituted as a preparation for Baptism – the public initiation into the Christian faith – and for those who wanted to renew their baptismal commitment.
Christ’s fast in the wilderness had a purpose. It was a preparation for a major change in his life: the beginning of a ministry that would change the face of history. When Christ called his followers to give anything up, that too was in order to set them free to follow a new direction. “Giving up” was so that
they might be radically changed – and that their change would then change the world. In the first centuries of Christendom, Lent was a time of “giving up” as preparation for a major life change.