Lent or Quadregisima is a 40-Day season of prayer and act of penance such as fasting and abstinence. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. In this season, the church will start to use the purple color including the vestments in the Holy Mass and cover the images with purple veil or cloth. Quadregisima is from a Latin word means “forty” while lent from the old English word “lencten” which means “spring”
There’s no’s exact date when the Lent began, but the forty days of fasting was first mentioned in the Council of Nicea on 325 A.D.
The Purple color symbolizes Royalty and Penitence. In the Sacred Scripture (The Holy Bible), our Lord Jesus Christ was clothed in Purple Robe during His passion.
Ash Wednesday opens the Liturgical Season of Lent where the Priest put a cross of ash in the forehead of the faithful. Traditionally, the faithful will kneel while receiving the ash on the forehead. In the Old Testament, ash is a sign death and humility, and also symbolizes sadness and repentance of sins. The Ash is from the burnt palm that was blessed during Palm Sunday. There’s no exact date of origin when the Ash Wednesday began, but it was celebrated during the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great.
One of the main practices that faithful shall do during Lent is Fasting and Abstinence. In Fasting, we must eat 1 regular meal and 2 small meals a day and not to eat any meat in a given day of abstinence such as Ash Wednesday, every Friday of Lent and in Holy Week.
Veiling the Images was called “Passiontide” where the church veils the images on Sunday before Palm Sunday. The center of the Passiontide is the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Veiling symbolizes when our Lord hide from the people that wants to stone Him (John 8:59). It also symbolizes the clothe that covers our Lord after His death.
Palm Sunday is where we remember the entering of our Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem while riding the donkey and being greeted by people waving palm branches. During the Palm Sunday, the Priest will bless the people and the palm leaves with Holy Water. In tradition, a palm cross shape was blessed by the priest with Holy Water and kissed by the faithful.
Holy Week is where we remember the Last Supper (the first Holy Mass) on Maundy Thursday, the death of our Lord on Good Friday until Holy Saturday.
