Lent, in Christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter. Conventionally it is described as being forty days long, though different denominations calculate the forty days differently.

In many denominations it is observed as a period of fasting and prayer, and this practice was virtually universal in Christendom until the Protestant Reformation.

The forty days represent the time that, according to the Bible, Jesus spent in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, where he endured emptattion by Satan.

The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, penitenc almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.