Lent (and Great Lent)
The forty-day season of preparation for Easter.
Lent is the forty-day season of preparation for Easter observed in Western Christian tradition (Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday) and as Great Lent (followed by Holy Week) in Orthodox tradition. The season is one of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, recalling Christ's forty days in the wilderness. Catholic Lenten observance includes fasting and abstinence on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and abstinence from meat on Fridays through the season. Orthodox Great Lent is more rigorous (no meat, dairy, eggs, or fish on most days, with specific exceptions). Mainline Protestant Lent is observed variously across denominations and families; evangelical practice often does not formally observe Lent.