Lent: a Matter of fasting from ash Wednesday to Easter

For devout Christians the Easter is Penance, like lent is also called, is a very important time in the Church year. It begins on ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday.

• The beginning of lent, was laid in the sixth century, on ash Wednesday. This day ushers in, for Christians a 40-day fast of lent. The last day of lent, Holy Saturday is.
• The time includes calendar of more than 40 days. However, the Sundays are days in the Church in the almost time with.
• That believers in Christ fasts 40 days, is no coincidence. This period commemorates the 40 days fasting for Jesus Christ himself in the desert. He resisted the temptations of the devil.
• So the devil, Jesus asked, for example, to allow the stones to be in the desert of bread, in order to have something to eat. Jesus replied: "It is written: Not by bread alone shall man live, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."
• Catholics between the ages of 14 and 60 years are called by the Church to fasting in lent. The sick are exempt from this requirement. The ash Wednesday and good Friday, so-called "necessary almost days are allowed to take", to which Catholics in General, just a meal.
• On ash Wednesday the fasting period is started traditionally with the custom of the sour herring meal. On good Friday is to be taken, no more of the fish may be eaten. On Easter Sunday, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, among other things, with a feast celebrated.
• The ash cross drawn Catholics on ash Wednesday on the forehead, symbolizes the transience of life. This mark is only in the Catholic Church or in an Ecumenical service of worship for Protestants.

With fasting, the most people connect far-reaching renunciation of food intake.

• Actually fasting but includes many other aspects. Abstinence from certain kinds of food counts. On the whole, it especially to a waiver.
• Strict believers abstain during lent on different things. These are, among other things, sweets, meat, alcohol, and tobacco.
• In principle, any excessive intake of a food is not in the fast time already a break of the fast bid. Even if it is actually allowed food. So each food is in Excess, a break of the fasting.
• The real purpose of lent is to be open to the word of God and more receptive to religious experiences to be.
• In addition to the waiver of certain things this fast expresses, for example, in a daily, intense prayer.
• Similarly, an increased willingness to donate in the time of lent is common. Believers are supposed to take more time for others.
• A little story to Fatenzeit: The people and monks in the middle ages, starved in the period before Easter, not necessarily. A legend from the past, the invention of the maultaschen are resisting. There, a monk of meat Packed in dough, and hid thus, the meat before the eyes of God.
• This story should be. in the monastery of Maulbronn in the 16 Century have happened. Because of Maulbronn in Swabia, the mouth of bags there, "Herrgottsb'shit alder" is called.

The difference between Catholic and Protestant we will explain in our next post.