When does Lent and Easter start and end this year 2022?

Lent begins on March 2, 2022 with Ash Wednesday, a 40-day stage for Catholic Christians, marked by fasting, abstinence, prayer and almsgiving, in which the faithful prepare for Easter. Resurrection.

That Wednesday, the priest blesses and imposes the ashes made from the palms blessed on Palm Sunday the previous year. Ash is a sign of humility and reminds the Christian of his origin and his end.

The length of Lent is based on the symbol for the number forty in the Bible. In it, they speak of the forty days of the flood, of the forty years of the march of the Jewish people through the desert, of the forty days of Moses and Elijah on the mountain, of the forty days that Jesus spent in the desert before of beginning his public life, of the 400 years that the Jewish stay in Egypt lasted.

In the Bible, the number four symbolizes the material universe, followed by zeros means the time of our life on earth, followed by trials and difficulties.

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Route of the churches

The origin of this liturgical season dates back to the 4th century, although evidence of Lenten practices existed as early as the end of the 2nd century and the beginning of the 3rd century, according to the testimony of Eusebius of Caesarea. The studies of the one considered as ‘Father of ecclesiastical history’ affirm that in the year 332 there was already news of Lent in the East and in Rome it was already celebrated in 385.

Canon law establishes that during the Lenten period “all the faithful are obliged by divine law to do penance; however, so that all may unite in some common practice of penance, special days have been set aside for prayer, works of piety and charity, and fasting and abstinence.”

Precisely, fasting consists of eating only one large meal a day on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, although it is also allowed to have something light in the morning or at night.

Lent ends on Holy Thursday. On that day the Church commemorates the Lord’s last supper with his apostles, before being crucified.

Holy Week

This year Holy Week will fall between April 10, Palm Sunday, and April 17, Resurrection Sunday or Easter.

The dates of Holy Week are determined from the lunar calendar, in such a way that the Sunday after the first full moon after the beginning of spring is Easter, which this year is April 17. From that day, the rest of the dates in the calendar are distributed.

The reason why the date of Holy Week changes every year is because the death of Jesus of Nazareth occurred close to the Jewish Passover. In the passage of the Bible that narrates the Last Supper, Christ celebrated with his disciples the feast in which the Jews remembered his departure from Egypt.

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Forgotten customs of Easter

The Jews, according to their rules, must renew this celebration every year on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which begins with the first new moon of spring: that is, the first full moon of spring, regardless of the day of the week that falls.

fasting and penance

The practice of fasting arose in the middle of the second century, when the Easter date was fixed and the Churches of East and West established the realization of a ‘great fast’ in order to prepare for Easter in an adequate way.

On the other hand, on the days of abstinence, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and the rest of the Fridays of Lent, canon law establishes that the faithful cannot eat meat, according to an ancient practice of the Christian people.

In this way, following the indications of the Second Vatican Council, in 1966 Pope Paul VI established in the ‘Penitemini’ Constitution the current practice of fasting and Lenten abstinence, which would later be embodied in the current Code of Canon Law establishing the following guidelines :

• Until the age of 14 there is no obligation of fasting or abstinence.
• Between the ages of 14 and 18, there is an obligation to abstain from meat or other food every Friday of Lent, Good Friday and Ash Wednesday, except if it coincides with a solemnity.
• From 18 to 59 there is an obligation to abstain from eating meat on the days indicated above and to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
• From the age of 59 there is no duty to fast but the commitment to abstain from meat or other food persists.
• If you suffer from any illness or if you are pregnant or lactating, you are not required to fast. (I)

Sources: Europe Press || ACI Press