Preparing for Holy Week and Easter Sunday: Praying, fasting, and almsgiving
The Resurrection of Our Savior is the single most important fact of the Christian faith, far more so than Christmas. For this reason, the Lenten season preparation for the celebration of Easter is far more intense than Advent.
The Western liturgical color of Lent is violet, symbolizing royalty and penitence. Solemnities like St. Joseph and the Annunciation, take precedence over Lenten observances in the Church calendar. These days, when they fall on Fridays, do away with Lenten abstinence requirements. However, at least in the current Western Church, Lent nearly always trumps the observances of minor feast days. Too many festivals take away from the simple and penitential spirit of the Lenten season.
Sundays are not a part of the Lenten fast, because Sunday is always a Feast of the Resurrection. However, the Sundays of Lent are still a part of the Lenten liturgical season in the Western Church, and the worship services tend to be more simple and austere than normal. They lack the Gloria, and the joyous “alleluias” of the Easter season.
The earliest fasts of Lent tended to be very strict, allowing one meal a day, and even then meats, eggs, and other indulgences were forbidden. The Eastern Churches follow this today. Now, in the Western Church, only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are enjoined as strict fast days, but Fridays are set aside for abstinence from meat.