Origin. Early Christianity records the tradition of fasting before Easter. ... The practice of fasting and abstaining from alcohol, meat and lacticinia during Lent thus became established in the Church. In AD 339, Saint Athanasius wrote that the Lenten fast was a forty-day fast that "the entire world" observed.

Where did the tradition of Lent come from?

In the Gospels, Jesus spends 40 days in the wilderness to fast and pray. This event was one of the factors that inspired the final length of Lent. Early Christian practices in the Roman Empire varied from area to area. A common practice was weekly fasting on Wednesday and Friday until mid-afternoon.

What was the original purpose of Lent?

Lent, in the Christian church, a period of penitential preparation for Easter. In Western churches it begins on Ash Wednesday, six and a half weeks before Easter, and provides for a 40-day fast (Sundays are excluded), in imitation of Jesus Christ's fasting in the wilderness before he began his public ministry.