The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-02-05
LENT WILL OPEN WITHIN FORTNIGHT
 EASTER IS APR. 4
Season of Penance Begins on Feb. Symbolic
 Ceremonies

the very name of Lent means spring itself and it seems a promise of the joyful blossom time that comes with Easter.
 Lent commences this year with Ash Wednesday, February II, and Easter Sunday occurs April 4. The name of Lent is derived from Saxon word .sIencten,' meaning spring. and the period of fasting preparatory to the festival ofsEaster is well named, comparable as it4is to the season when the leaves and flowers which make the world glor- ious with the coming of summer, gre hidden in the bare earth and ranches.
 The name of Lent, which is not particularly descriptive of the fast itself, is probably derived from the same root as .'long'' and may have been originally applied to @the 1engthening days The fast became gradually confused with the season until now the word "Lent'' is con fined to this usage; in place of the Latin name for the fast, FtQuadra- gesima,' derived from the Sunday which is the fortieth day before Easter The French name of ..carene' is traceab1e to the ancient Latin name, as are the Spanish and Italian names for the period.
 The length and rigor of this pre- Easter fast has varied in various countries and at different periods, but early in the seventh century four days were added by the Pope then ruling to the thirty-six days previously wide+ ly accepted as forming a tenth part of year, and the period of forty days now kept (the Sundays in Lent being excepted) has since prevailed throughout the west, although the Greek church keeps an eight weeks fast, or exactly eight times five days, Saturdays and Sundays being omitted from the fast.
 During the reign of Queen Eliza beth and her immediate successors the rule of fish eating during Lent was enforced by civil as we'll as re- Igfous laws to preserve the fishing industry in the coast towns of Eng land. but the practice of; fasting fell more and more into disuse at about that time and ostentatious avoidance of 9 fish diet became one of the out ward symbols of militant Protestant-s ism among the Puritans John lay Tor, the water-poet, wrote in his. Jack Lent in 1920 that he had noted ttlsat if any superfuous feast ing or gormandiztng, paunch cram ming assembly do meet, it is so or dered that it must be either in Lent, on Friday, or a fasting; for the. meat does not relish well except 1t be sauced with disobedience and con tempt of auth ority.''
 Queen Elizabeth and her court wore mourning during Lent but aI-' though the observance of fasting faded after the Revolution with the increase of Puritanisn, it was reV1v-. ed in the English church with the growth of the Oxford movement, and was always maintained in the Roman Catholic church..
 With modern times Lent has4come to mean cessation of social life to great extent, and even where fast ing does not exist there is a feeling of respect for the ancient custom which prevents. entertaining on a. large scale. However. this period of social shadow has become xconsider- ed an excellent time to travel and the fashionable world goes south to rest during Lent after the work and play of the winter season.
 Begins Ash Wednesday.
 The season of Lent officially opens with Ash Wednesday, but the preeed- ing day, Shrove Tuesday. is spiritual ly a beginning of the season, as from earliest times it had been customary for the faithful to pre- pare themselves for the fast of Lent and the spiritual joys of Easter by confessing and beE The word etshroves' is derived from the Saxon, meaning to confess.
 Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the western church, is dis-5 ungu1Shed by cGremOn1e symbolic OF the brevity of life the certainty of death and the return of the body to earth, wh ence it came. The day is named for the use of ashes in its cere-5 monies and the custom is ultimately based on the penance of ''sackcIoth and ashes mentioned in the Old Testa ent and the custom of public penance in the early church.
 Tn the ceremonial of the day, as preserved in the Roman Cath holtcs church, the priest marks the sign of the cross on the foreheads of those used in the ceremonies of the pre- vious Palm Sunday. The cerem ony9 occurs previous to the celebration of mass. and the words Rem eInber. man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return. are pro- nounced in Latin as each cross is made. This custom is of very ancient origin and it is thought probably it extended to entire scongrega lions by the beginning of the eighth century The phrase dies cinerufn'' (day of asheso appears in the earliest extant copies of the Gregorian Sacrenent- ary.
 The Anglican or Episcopal church marks the day by the recitation Of the seven Penetential Psalms and the Ash Wednesday collect is read on every day in Lent after the collect appointed for the day
 Palm Sunday.
 Palm Sunday, which is the Sunday immediately preceding Easter, is commemoration of the triumphaI en- trance of Christ into Jerusalem. when the populace strewed palm branches in the way and cried .'Hosanna'' The services in observance of the day are. beautiful and appropriate. In the Roman Catholic church, the cere- monies are divided into three dis unct parts, the solemn blessing of the palms, the procession. and the mass. The entire ceremony is very impressive and the mass, character ized by all the outward signs of sor- row proper to Passion Week. of which this Sunday is the first day. is a contrast to the Joyous and trium- phant air of the preceding portions of the observance.