The 40 day question of Lent and the picture of the day for March 19, 2011

Well. The unanswerable question from today is “why are there 40 days of Lent?” 

Turns out the 40 days are not the same across Christianity. For the Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic tradition, Lent ends on the Friday BEFORE Palm Sunday, so for 40 consecutive days, but ending the week before Easter.

For Oriental Orthodox Christians, Lent’s 40 days excludes Saturdays and Sundays, for a total of eight weeks.

Western Christianity counts from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday but the SUNDAYS in between don’t count.

Phew! Lent, the way I understood it, has 44 days – Wed Mar 9^th to Maundy Thursday, April 21^st.  Maundy Thursday – thanks here to Cathy Blundell for discovering this last year – is the night of the Last Supper, and the night before Good Friday. But I think I am way out there is no-man’s land on this one. But all this still doesn’t answer the question of why the 40 days?

Is it in recognition of the 40 days and nights Jesus spent in the desert where he was tempted by the devil, and then defeated him with scripture?  The 40 hours Jesus spent in the tomb prior to the resurrection? The 40 days and nights Moses spent on Mount Sinai? The 40 years the Hebrew people spent wandering lost?

Is the 40 days a symbolic number representing these and other acts or events in the bible? 40 days of fasting, penance and acts of charity?

As my father would tell you I am the LAST person on earth who should be discussing religion – as my brother and I were gazing at an ancient mosaic depicting the Final Judgment, I asked our tour guide, a Professor Emeritus of Theology, when it had happened.  He was shocked and my brother was mortified. And a private school education too! 

So on that note, here is my choice for picture of the day: