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Great Lent, or the Great Fast (Greek: Μεγάλη Τεσσαρακοστή, Megali Tessarakosti or Μεγάλη Νηστεία, Megali Nisteia, meaning "Great 40 Days", and "Great Fast", respectively), is the most important fasting season of the church year within many denominations of Eastern Christianity.
In the Byzantine Rite, i.e., the Eastern Orthodox Great Lent (Greek: Μεγάλη Τεσσαρακοστή or Μεγάλη Νηστεία, meaning "Great 40 Days" and "Great Fast" respectively) is the most important fasting season in the church year. [63] The 40 days of Great Lent include Sundays, and begin on Clean Monday.
Clean Monday is part of the paschal cycle, and as such it depends on the paschal computus which may differ between denominations and churches. [a] Additionally, the date may also depend on the calendar used by the particular church, such as the Julian calendar used by Eastern Orthodox churches, the Gregorian calendar used by Eastern Catholics, and the Ethiopian or Coptic calendars ...
On this day, all Orthodox Christians ask each other for forgiveness to begin the Great Lent with a good heart, to focus on the spiritual life, to purify the heart from sin in confession, and to meet Easter - the day of the Resurrection of Jesus with a pure heart. This is the last day before Lent when non-lenten food is eaten.
The Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar describes and dictates the rhythm of the life of the Eastern Orthodox Church.Passages of Holy Scripture, saints and events for commemoration are associated with each date, as are many times special rules for fasting or feasting that correspond to the day of the week or time of year in relationship to the major feast days.
This is not identical to Shrove Monday, which precedes the start of (Western) Lent by two days. Clean Monday is the first day of the Great Lent, and is traditionally considered the beginning of spring in Greece and Cyprus, where it is a Bank Holiday. [8] Different traditions take place in different localities.
The Feast of Orthodoxy (or Sunday of Orthodoxy or Triumph of Orthodoxy) is celebrated on the first Sunday of Great Lent in the Eastern Orthodox Church and other churches using the Byzantine Rite to commemorate, originally, only the final defeat of iconoclasm [1] on the first Sunday of Lent in 843, and later also opposition to all heterodoxy. [2]
Holy Week in the liturgical year is the week immediately before Easter. The earliest allusion to the custom of marking this week as a whole with special observances is to be found in the Apostolical Constitutions (v. 18, 19), dating from the latter half of the 3rd century and 4th century.