SOFIA, Bulgaria —
For many Christians in the world, Lent began on Wednesday, but
more than 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide got a two-day
start in their observance of the 40-day period of penitence and
fasting.
The Orthodox Christian Lent always begins on the Monday before
the Sunday of Orthodoxy. In 2004 it falls on Feb. 29 and is a
special day in the Orthodox calendar when the faithful are called
to rededicate themselves.
The Lenten period of prayer and fasting precedes Easter, which
for Orthodox churches is celebrated this year on April 11 and
coincides with the Easter date of Western Christianity.
Orthodox churches designate the Monday that marks the start
of Lent as “Clean Monday,” or the “Monday of
cleansing or purification.” On this day, Orthodox faithful
are required to begin a spiritual and moral purification through
fasting, prayer, meditation, repentance, attending Lenten religious
services and partaking of the sacraments of confession and communion.
In Bulgaria, the Sunday before the beginning of Lent is a day
on which people traditionally ask forgiveness of each other for
wrongdoing in the past year. Customarily, the young first ask
their elders for forgiveness. Forgiveness is requested within
the family, among friends, and in the workplace.
The practice of asking forgiveness even manifested itself in
the political arena, with the leader of Bulgaria’s largest
opposition party, Nadezhda Mihailova, asking her political rivals
for forgiveness on Sunday, which was the second day of a special
national conference held by the party.
After the fall of communism in 1990, observance of Lenten rules
has become increasingly more widespread along with other important
religious events.
While there are other times of fast and abstinence in the Orthodox
calendar, the pre-Easter Lent is the longest.
In a statement issued in New York, the Standing Conference of
the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas said, “As
Orthodox Christians we have been given the blessed opportunity
to enter into an intense period of worship, prayer, fasting, and
philanthropy that will direct our lives in the path of salvation
and draw us into deeper communion with God.”
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