Do Christians really understand what is behind the celebrations of Ash Wednesday, Lent and Easter? Do they know the history of these holidays, or do they simply assume that the Bible authorizes them somewhere?
Why do people do what they do? People have a tendency to carry on with whatever they have been taught. Many times, questioning is not allowed. In Mystery of the Ages, Herbert W Armstrong (HWA) wrote:
For example, in an elementary grade one of my grandsons was once asked by the teacher, “Who discovered America?”
“The Indians,” promptly answered the grandson. The teacher was astonished.
“No, Larry, don’t you know that Columbus discovered America?”
“No, Ma’am, the Indians were already here to greet Columbus when he finally arrived.”
The lad was given a zero for his answer and severely instructed to always remember that the book says Columbus discovered America!
A pupil, or a student in high school or university, is graded on memorizing and believing what he is taught by the textbook, the teacher, instructor or professor.
In the first dummy copy of the magazine The Plain Truth that I put together in 1927–seven years before the magazine was actually published–I had an artist draw a picture of a schoolroom, with children sitting at the desks, each with a funnel stuck into his or her head. The teacher was pouring out of a pitcher ready- made propaganda into each child’s head.
A student enrolled at a Methodist seminary receives Methodist doctrine and teaching into his head. A Catholic student studying in a Catholic seminary is taught Roman Catholic teachings. A student in a Presbyterian seminary is given Presbyterian doctrines. A student in Germany studying history is instructed in one version of World Wars I and II, but a history student in the United States is taught a somewhat different version.
But I had been called specially by the living GOD. I was trying to prove the very opposite of what I found clearly and unmistakably to be what the Bible SAYS! I was taught by Christ what I did not want to believe but what he showed me was TRUE!
~ MOA, Introduction.
I wish I had a copy of that picture. It seems that someone had a copy at one time, but I don’t recall when or where.
Back to the subject, though, some have taught and believe that Lent can be traced back to the time of the apostles. However, there is no evidence they ever kept Lent, Ash Wednesday or even Easter for that matter. It does seem that some proscribed fasting around periods of time in the spring, but there was no commonality until the time of Athanasius, who reported in a letter in 339 that people outside of Alexandria observed a forty day period of fasting prior to Easter, and he thus enjoined them to do the same.
However, a more startling revelation is that it has pre-Christian origins.
The reasons for celebrating our major feasts when we do are many and varied. In general, however, it is true that many of them have at least an indirect connection with the pre-Christian [pagan] feasts celebrated about the same time of year — feasts centering around the harvest, the rebirth of the sun at the winter solstice (now Dec. 21, but Dec. 25 in the old Julian calendar), the renewal of nature in spring, and so on.
~ The New Question Box – Catholic Life for the Nineties, copyright 1988 by John J. Dietzen, M.A., S.T.L., ISBN 0-940518-01-5 (paperback), published by Guildhall Publishers, Peoria Illinois, 61651., page 554. As quoted on LENT – The 40 days of Weeping for Tammuz
I can find no reliable source that the length of time ancient Babylon and Israel wept for Tammuz was for forty days, but Eze 8:13-16 does mention Tammuz and the abominable worship practices of Israel, and it culminates in what is very similar to an Easter sunrise service, so the relationship may exist. However, the month of Tammuz generally coincides with July, so that seems unlikely.
Having said that, looking up “pagan lent” on Google gives some interesting results. “Lent” is essentially from the same word as “lengthen” and refers to the lengthening of days. It turns out that various pagan traditions exist with purging in the spring time.
It also turns out that while “Easter” is celebrated for one day, its ancestor was “Eostur-monath”. Perhaps you’ve already guessed it, but “monath” means “month”.
Ôstarmânoth is attested as the month-name equivalent to April that was decreed by Charlemagne, but as a goddess Eostre is attested only by Bede in his 8th century work De temporum ratione. Bede states that Eosturmonaþ was the equivalent to the month of April, and that feasts held in Eostre’s honor during Eosturmonaþ had died out by the time of his writing, replaced by the “Paschal month” (celebration of the resurrection of Jesus). The possibility of a Common Germanic goddess called *Austro has been examined in detail since the foundation of Germanic philology in the 19th century by Jacob Grimm and others.
~ Wikipedia. Eostre.
The short of it is that Ash Wednesday and Lent are all tied to the celebration of Easter. If Easter is not a Christian holiday, then these fall with it. So, the question becomes: Should Christians Celebrate Easter?
I forgot to mention that the month for Eostur was likely stretched out to 40 in order to make it seem more biblical. One of Satan’s ploys is to use counterfeits whenever possible.