Great Lent (Medz Bahk or Karasnortk) begins this Monday, February 20. Great Lent is the longest of the fasts in the liturgical calendar. It begins on the Monday immediately following Paregentan and continues for 40 days until the Friday before the commemoration of the raising of Lazarus on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. A new period of fasting is observed during Holy Week.
Great Lent, a time of prayer, penance, abstinence, and devotion, is a very personal spiritual journey that is based on the 40 days Christ spent in the wilderness following his baptism. “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished.” (Matthew 4:1-2)