REFLECTIONS ON LENT AND THE GANGA OF CHRISTIANITY

HIS year, the 40-day-long Christian fast called Lent began on March 5 and will end on April 17.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

It seems the word 'Lent' comes from Latin, meaning fortieth, since the fast is observed for 40 days.

The fast is in spiritual preparation for the foundational event of the Christian faith, which is Easter, occurring this year on April 20.

Easter is the anniversary of the day that Christians believe Jesus returned from the dead. Known as the Resurrection, it is the most important Christian event after Christmas.

Lent commemorates the 40 days that Jesus is believed to have spent fasting in the desert before beginning his public ministry. Fasting is an old practice across religions and cultures and some say that the new Christian faith adopted it as it grew and evolved from being an underground cult for the West Asian underclass in its beginning to a formal public religion celebrated by kings.

It is said that Jesus undertook this fast after being baptised in the river Jordan by John, his cousin. John was a Jew, like Jesus, and an active preacher in the area of the river Jordan in the early first century Common Era. He is also known as Yahya bin Zakariya, or John, son of Zachariah. According to the Gospels, John anticipated the coming of someone much greater than himself, the promised Messiah of the Old Testament.