Many of our Christian families observe Lent from March 5-April 17. Lent, in the Christian church, is a period of penitential preparation for Easter. In Western churches it begins on Ash Wednesday, six and a half weeks before Easter, and provides a 40-day period for fasting and abstinence, in imitation of Jesus Christ’s fasting in the wilderness before He began His public ministry. In Eastern churches, Lent begins on the Monday of the seventh week before Easter and ends on the Friday that is nine days before Easter.