As one might have noticed by reading my blog, I am by no means a fan of jumping on the bandwagon just for fun. In fact, if people are jumping on such a wagon, it makes me question it even more so. Call it skepticism if you will, I do. I have the same degree of skepticism when it comes to ALL holidays, especially “Christian” holidays, even ones that claim to be Godly. Most of the time, they are not.
When I was on staff at a church I noticed people were “giving up” or fasting from something for Lent. I would never have a problem with someone giving up something in hopes to allow them to be closer to God. That is honorable, as long as it is done in private, as not to boast. But why were people, at a Baptist church, fasting for Lent? Traditionally, it was a Catholic and Eastern Orthodox practice, or did it go even further back predating the church itself?
Let’s look into this event called Lent. Where did this come from? It is a 40 day period leading up to and culminating at Easter day. So what is Easter? The two rituals go hand and hand.
Fact: Easter is named after the goddess called Ishtar. Hence, the names sounding extremely similar. She is the goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar). That is why during Easter you will see Easter eggs and bunnies, both symbols of fertility. In Sumerian Mythology, the goddess Ishtar had a son, and he was a hunter, that is the root of Easter Egg hunting.
The tie-in of the “Christian” celebration of Easter and the Lent is simple. In Babylonian times, there was a 40 day period, in the Springtime, for the celebration and mourning of the supposed death and resurrection of Ishtar’s son, Tammuz. The 40 day period is followed and culminated by the celebration of the goddess Ishtar.
The celebration has been celebrated for thousands of years, it is even mentioned in Ezekiel 8:14:
Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
The church would argue that the origin of Lent would be from the days of old, during the first century, but the Lent traditions started hundreds of years later, around the same time all of the Christian traditions began. And like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, All Saints Day, etc they come from either a Babylonian, Roman, Greek, Celtic or Germanic tribe’s tradition.
Resources:
Note, I do not endorse these sites as a whole as I have not read everything on them, but these two pages have great material.
http://www.sabbathcovenant.com/book2MysteryReligionOfBabylon/Chapter7.htm