Christianity is the religion based on Jesus of Nazareth and his ancient teachings. For centuries, christians all over the world have been practicing their religion, spreading their religion, and passing it down to their kids. 33% of the human population today is christian, which means that a great majority of them are involved and or know of the lenten season.

Lent is a period of time that lasts forty days. These days mimic the time in which Jesus spent forty days in the desert and fasted by not having food or water. Lent also occurs before Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday, which was March 6th this year, and ends on a thursday that conmermorates the Last Supper, which falls on April 18th this year.

So what is lent really for? Lent is a time of preparation for Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As I mentioned above, lent sort of mimics the days Jesus fasted in the desert. So during lent, people tend to fast as well. Examples of this could be; giving up bread, junkfood, meat, or even social media. It all depends on what the person wants to do. Sometimes people add things to their daily list during lent. Like maybe they’ll start attending daily mass or praying the rosary every day.

Freshman Christian Romero was very interested in the topic. When asked a series of questions this was his response,

“Yes, religion does play a big part in my life. I do participate in lent because it is a part of my catholic religion and it’s something I’ve been doing since I was a little kid. This lenten season, I decided to give up fast food because I eat it quite often and it has started to make me increase my weight.”

Another freshamn, Annahi Carbajal had something to say when asked the same series of questions,

“Yes, religion does play a very, very big part in my life. Ever since I was a little girl lent and easter have always been something very important to my family and I. Now that I’m older I acknowledge that over the years how much my decisions have changed. What I mean by that is that is, I realize how as a little girl I’d give up chocolate or chips, now I’m finding myself giving up being mean or jealous toward others.”

As you can see lent is something very important to many. From here in our community to all around the world, the season of lent and easter seems to be a very happy time for christians. It’s a time of reflection and sacrifice. Let us not forget that it is also a time of appreciation towards Jesus. Given all this information about lent, for some it can all still be very confusing and a big question that is usually asked is, why? Why do people do this? The reason being is that their beliefs and their “truths” are something very important to them. So important that they base most of their lives around them. Lent is one of the many holidays that help make up the christian faith, one of the many that tend to impact the most. So hopefully we can all be positive and kind during this lent season.