Lent and the cultural particularity of religious observance

If you live in the Northern hemisphere, as the days begin to lengthen and the sun shines a little brighter, you will suddenly begin to notice cobwebs and dust lurking in the corners of your home. The brighter light can inspire even the least enthusiastic housekeeper to clean the windows and sweep the cobwebs. And it's easy to make connections between the spring cleaning of our homes and the spiritual check-up that Lent offers.

The word "Lent" comes from the Old English word Lencten which, with its allusion to the lengthening days, meant looking forward to Spring.  By its very name, then, Lent summons up the anticipation of winter's end, of new life coming, of the promise of Spring. 

But such ideas strike us differently now from how they did a hundred or more years ago. For one thing, in the Western world we have lost the sense of seasonal food as you can now buy tomatoes, oranges or asparagus at any time of year; we have lost the cultural memory of how boring late winter food once was. But for another thing, pondering the origins of Lent also reveal how culturally particular the development of such ideas are. Easter and Spring go naturally together in the Mediterranean and European countries where such ideas developed. But they don't match up quite so perfectly in Scandinavia where spring comes later, or in the Southern hemisphere where Lent falls at the end of summer. 

What does Lent mean in the 21st century, where Christianity is all over the world, but also lives side by side with other faiths and no-faith in pluralistic societies? How do we express Lent's meanings when we communicate daily on the internet with people who are celebrating Lent in settings as different as winter, early Spring, or Autumn (Fall)? Lent's history gives us ways of digging back into the tradition we have inherited, but it also reveals the extent to which the meanings we create around relgious observance are coloured by our cultural setting. How to hold the threads of tradition while allowing them to be re-interpreted in our current culture is one of the adventures of faith - a challenge, but a life-giving one if we are prepared to face it.

What aspects of your own cultural situation affect the way you understand and interpret Lent?  

• Are you farming a plot, or completely absorbed in urban life, and how does that affect your awareness of seasonal food - and perhaps of food justice?

• Do you work a regular work week, or shifts? Does working nights affect your perception of Lent?

• What does it feel like reading the classical Lent devotions based on north-hemisphere conditions, if you live in the southern hemisphere?