Lent for the year 2023 starts on Wednesday, February 22 and ends on Thursday, April 6th with evening mass on Holy Thursday. Lent is a Christian annual period that starts on Ash Wednesday lasting to 40 days (not including Sundays) representing the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness.
How did Lent come to be?
It all began after Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River, which Matthew 3:13-17 says marked his messianic mission, and he headed to the desert for 40 days 40 which is a significant number in Jewish-Christian traditions, representing the duration of the Great Flood in the Bible scripture Genesis, Moses’s time spent in the wilderness before receiving the Ten Commandments, and the days Hebrews spent in the desert before reaching the Promised Land.
During Jesus’ 40-day fasting period in the desert, Christians believe he overcame temptations from Satan and a series of tests, which gave him the power to carry out his mission of preaching, healing, and saving humanity from sin once he returned. There’s also historical evidence that “our forefathers” — also known as Jesus’ apostles — fasted for 40 days, 24 hours a day, before Easter. In fact, a letter written to Pope St. Victor I from St. Irenaeus in 203 A.D. mentioned the act of fasting for “40 hours” or “40 days, seven hours a day.”