Prayer – Fasting – Giving
The season of Lent recalls a practice of praying and fasting for 40 days seen in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In the Old Testament, both Moses and Elijah went into the mountains to fast and pray for 40 days. The New Testament tells us that Jesus fasted and prayed in the desert for 40 days, during which time he was tempted by Satan. All three examples served a period of preparation for a significant spiritual event. Moses’s fast preceded receiving the Ten Commandments. For Jesus, it marked the beginning of his ministry.
A time of fasting and prayer in preparation for Easter can be traced back to the early Christianity. The word ‘Lent’ comes from an Old English word for ‘spring’ but in other languages more direct reference is made towards its 40-day duration or activities associated with it. In Latin, for example, the season is called ‘quadragesima’ while in German it is known as ‘Fastenzeit’ (fasting time).
Duration and timing
In the Church of England, Lent runs from Ash Wednesday until the evening of Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday). In the Roman Catholic tradition, it officially ends on Maundy Thursday. In both these traditions, Sundays are excluded from the calculations to reach a total of 40 days.
The date of Ash Wednesday will change each year, depending on the date of Easter Sunday. The date of Easter has been the subject of much debate and calculated differently by different Christian traditions and at different times in History. In Western Christianity, the ‘debate’ was famously ‘settled’ at the Synod of Whitby in 664, where one method for calculating the date was agreed universally.
Pre-Lenten Celebrations
In many countries, the period immediately before Lent is characterised by merrymaking. For some, this is Carnival time (such as in Venice and Cologne), which can last for up to three months and involve elaborate costumes, parades and other special events.
In the UK, celebrations are traditionally confined to just one day, ‘Shrove Tuesday’ or ‘Pancake Day’, when pancakes were made to use up rich foods such as eggs, milk and sugar that would not have been enjoyed during Lent. Shrove Tuesday is often a day for cathedral choristers to ‘let their hair down’ before the beginning of the abstemious season of Lent, and many cathedrals hold pancake races. Sometimes the clergy also join in.
Here, you can see the fun as ‘Cantoris’ and ‘Decani’, the two sides of Worcester Cathedral Choir, take part in a relay race around the cloisters.
A season of austerity
For the two weeks before Easter, crosses and other images are often covered or ‘veiled’, being revealed once again on Good Friday (crosses) and Holy Saturday (other images).
Although it is far less common now than it was in the Middle Ages for Christians to abstain completely from food and drink during daylight hours, many Christians do aim to ‘give something up’ for Lent. This could be refraining from alcohol or coffee or foods such as meat, chocolate or sweets, or it could be giving up other ‘luxuries’ such as watching television. An alternative approach is to ‘take something up’, such as exercise, meditation or additional Bible study, or to spend time volunteering. Many Christians also give to their church or to charity during Lent.
Music during Lent
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. It takes its name from the tradition of using ash to mark the foreheads of worshippers with a cross, or, in some traditions, sprinkling ashes over their heads at an Ash Wednesday Mass or Eucharist. Ashes are an ancient symbol of penitence. In some traditions, the palm crosses that had been distributed on Palm Sunday of the previous year are burned to create the ashes. As each congregant is marked with ashes, the minister may say ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’
The music of Ash Wednesday is penitential in nature. A central feature is often Allegri’s Miserere, which is a setting of Psalm 51, composed in the 1630s for the Sistine Chapel.
Other settings of this Psalm might also be used on Ash Wednesday. These could include William Byrd’s ‘Miserere’, Purcell’s ‘Miserere mei’, a contemporary setting such as that by James MacMillan, or a version in English, SS Wesley’s ‘Wash me throughly’.
Cecilia McDowall’s anthem, ‘Ash Wednesday’ sets a text by Christina Rosetti.
Hymns will be also focus on repentance, such as ‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’ or ‘Drop, drop slow tears’.
Sundays during Lent
The Gloria is omitted during communion services during Lent and, in most Anglican cathedrals in the UK, you are likely to hear the ‘Kyrie Eleison’ (Lord, have mercy) sung instead. Likewise, during Matins, the Te Deum and the Jubilate are replaced with the Benedictus and the Benedicite. The word ‘alleluia’ (meaning ‘praise the Lord’) is also omitted from the liturgy, encouraging a focus on repentance and making the return of the word on Easter Sunday more joyful. Different texts will be used, for example, for the Gospel Acclamation, such as ‘Praise to you, O Christ, King of Eternal Glory.’
The first Sunday in Lent focuses on Jesus’s prayer and fasting in the desert, so may feature the well-known hymn ‘Forty days and forty nights’.
It may also feature a setting of the Litany, for example Thomas Tallis’s Five-Part litany, which alternates the chanted passages for the Cantor with harmonised responses.
Laetare Sunday
The fourth Sunday during Lent is sometimes known as ‘Laetare Sunday’. It takes its name from the traditional introit for the Mass on that day ‘Laetare Jerusalem’ (Rejoice, Jerusalem). Music chosen for this day may be a little more ‘celebratory’, and may include settings of texts such as ‘Laudate Dominum’ by Victoria or Palestrina or ‘Cantate Domino’ by Monteverdi. This Sunday is also known as ‘Refreshment Sunday’, or ‘Rose Sunday’ (rose-coloured vestments can be worn on this day) and offers a little relief from the austerity of Lent.
In the UK, it is also marked as ‘Mothering Sunday’. Music choices might acknowledge this, perhaps with a reflection on Mary as the mother of Jesus, with a setting of the Ave Maria (for example, by Elgar) or Tavener’s ‘A Hymn for the Mother of God’.
The fifth Sunday in Lent is known as ‘Passion Sunday’. From this point onwards, the liturgy and music is focused on the Cross and the events of Holy Week.
Evensong during Lent
In the Anglican tradition, Evensong is observed as usual throughout Lent but settings of the Canticles (the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis) used are likely to be more subdued than at other times of year.
Anthems that might feature either at Eucharist or Evensong could include works such as ‘Sicut Cervus’ (Palestrina), ‘Like as the Hart’ (Howells), ‘Salvator Mundi’ (Tallis), ‘Out of the Deep’ (Morley) or ‘Hear my Prayer’ by Mendelssohn. Poulenc’s four ‘Motets for a time of Penitence’ are also sometimes sung during Lent.