Lent Days of Forgiveness
Cheesefare Sunday, Clean Monday, Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday
Many Christian churches reserve specials days right before or at the start of Lent for the repentance and forgiveness of one's tresspasses.
It is not all Carnival before Lent! Many Christian churches reserve a day before or at the start of the Lent Season especially for the repentance of sins and the quest for forgiveness, from God as well as from one’s neighbors.
On 18 February this year, the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church holds “Cheesefare Sunday” or "Forgiveness Sunday". On this day, at Mass, people ask forgiveness of one another. The idea is that the believer can only approach the “Great Fast” of Lent, during which God’s forgiveness is asked, after forgiving and being forgiven by one’s fellow man. Read the Gospel of Matthew 6, 14-15: "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
The day after, on 19 February this year, the same Eastern Orthodox Church begins Lent (so a couple of days before the Western Christians do) with “Clean Monday”. If the day before went well, the believer can begin the holy season of Lent with a “clean heart”. It is the custom to fast on that day.
On 20 February, Christians in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia celebrate Shrove Tuesday, another day of repentance. This custom goes back to the Anglo-Saxon Christians, who on that day - the day before the beginning of Lent - went “shriving”: they confessed and repented, seeking absolution. Shrove Tuesday concludes Shrovetide, which is the English equivalent of the Carnival season. Today it is customary to eat pancakes, and so Shrove Tuesday is also called Pancake Day.
21 February: Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent in the Western Christian Church. This is another special day to consider one’s sins and repent. At Mass, the priest or celebrant blesses the worshippers by applying a cross of black ashes to their foreheads. Usually it is only washed off after sundown. On this day the fast is more strict than on many of the other thirty-nine days.
Related articles
- The Season of Lent
- Carnival as Anti-Lent
- Detailed Lent and Easter Timeline
- Detailed Timeline of Easter: Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday
