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Lent (Latin: Quadragesima - English: ''Fortieth'') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar of many Christian denominations that begins on Ash Wednesday and covers a period of approximately six weeks before Easter Sunday. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer, penance, repentance of sins, almsgiving, atonement and self-denial. This event, along with its pious customs, is observed by Christians in the Anglican, Calvinist, Lutheran, Methodist, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. Today, some Anabaptist and evangelical churches also observe the Lenten season. Its institutional purpose is heightened in the annual commemoration of Holy Week, marking the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the tradition and events of the New Testament beginning on Friday of Sorrows, further climaxing on Jesus' crucifixion on Good Friday, which ultimately culminates in the joyful celebration on Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. During Lent, many Christians commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of penitence. Many Christians also add a Lenten spiritual discipline, such as reading a daily devotional, to draw themselves near to God.〔 The Stations of the Cross, a devotional commemoration of Christ's carrying the Cross and of his execution, are often observed. Many Roman Catholic and some Protestant churches remove flowers from their altars, while crucifixes, religious statues, and other elaborate religious symbols are often veiled in violet fabrics in solemn observance of the event. Throughout Christendom, some adherents mark the season with the traditional abstention from the consumption of meat, most notably among Roman Catholics.〔This practice is observed in numerous pious Catholic countries, although the form of abstention may vary depending on what is customary. Some abstain from meat for 40 days, some do so only on Fridays, or some only on Good Friday itself. By pontifical decree under Pope Alexander VI, eggs and dairy products may be consumed by penitents during Lent in Spain and its colonized territories.〕 Lent is traditionally described as lasting for forty days, in commemoration of the forty days which, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent, before beginning his public ministry, fasting in the desert, where he endured temptation by the Devil.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 What is Lent and why does it last forty days? )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 The Liturgical Year )〕 In most of the West, it begins on Ash Wednesday. Different Christian denominations calculate its length differently. On this see Duration, below. ==Nomenclature== The English word ''Lent'' is a shortened form of Old English ''len(c)ten'', which meant 'spring', as its cognates in the Germanic languages still do today: German ''Lenz'', Dutch ''lente'' and Afrikaans ''lente''. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 'the shorter form (? Old Germanic type *''laŋgito''- , *''laŋgiton''-) seems to be a derivative of *''laŋgo''- long ... and may possibly have reference to the lengthening of the days as characterizing the season of spring'. The origin of the -''en'' element is less clear: it might simply be a suffix, or ''lencten'' might originally have been a compound of *''laŋgo''- 'long' and an otherwise little attested word *-''tino'', meaning 'day'.〔"Lenten, n. and adj." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2014. Web. 19 February 2015.〕 In languages spoken where Christianity was earlier established, Greek and Latin, the term used refers to its dating from the fortieth day before Easter. In modern Greek the term is Σαρακοστή, derived from earlier Τεσσαρακοστή, meaning "fortieth". The corresponding word in Latin ''quadragesima'' ("fortieth") is the origin of the term used in Latin-derived languages and in some others: for example, Spanish ''cuaresma'', Portuguese ''quaresma'', French ''carême'', Italian ''quaresima'', Romanian ''păresimi'', Croatian ''korizma'', Irish ''Carghas'', and Welsh ''C(a)rawys''). In other languages the name used refers to the activity associated with the season. Thus it is called "fasting period" in German (''Fastenzeit''), Norwegian (''fasten''/''fastetid''), and Czech (''postní doba''); and it is called "great fast" in Russian (великий пост – ''vyeliki post'') and Polish (''wielki post''). The terms used in Filipino are ''Kuwaresma'' (from the Spanish) and ''Mahál na Araw'' ("precious/great days"), the latter term also used specifically for Holy Week. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lent」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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