Today is Ash Wednesday, and if the start of the Lenten season leading to Easter seems early this year, there's a reason: The last time Lent arrived this early was 1913.
"Ash Wednesday already?" said the Rev. Ken Fong, senior pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church-L.A. "It just crept up on us."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, February 13, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 48 words Type of Material: Correction
Lent: An article in the Feb. 6 California section about the Lenten season said the Council of Nicaea was held in 323. The year was 325. The story also said Western churches at the council agreed on the formula to establish Easter. Both Eastern and Western churches agreed.
And it did so for many others, too.
"It's a real switch," said the Rev. Guillermo Garcia, pastor of St. Gertrude Catholic Church in Bell Gardens, to go from December to Lent in such a compressed time. "Suddenly you go from Christmas rejoicing to begin the penance."
Easter, the holiest day of the Christian calendar, is observed by much of the Western church on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the equinox.
At Masses and services today, priests and ministers will apply ashes in the sign of a cross -- indicating inner repentance -- to the foreheads of Christians.
Easter often occurs in April and the word Lent comes from Anglo-Saxon lencten, meaning spring. But this year, because of cycles of the moon, Easter, or Resurrection Day as many prefer, will be observed March 23. The last time it occurred on that date Woodrow Wilson was president. Ash Wednesday in 1913 was Feb. 5, a day earlier than today because this is a leap year, which adds an extra day in the middle of the Lenten season.
So with Christmas decorations barely put away, churches have been gearing up for 40 days of repentance, reflection and fasting.
But, for some, not without a big splurge first.
On Tuesday evening, members of Centenary United Methodist Church in Little Tokyo staged a Fat Tuesday feast in the grand French Catholic tradition of Mardi Gras, with a beautifully decorated feast table laden with food.
The tradition is to have "the richest, fattiest and most filling food," said the Rev. Mark Nakagawa, senior pastor of the one of the oldest Japanese American churches in California. The menu included jambalaya, pancakes, bacon, sausages and seven types of desserts, including Mardi Gras king cakes--all prepared by church members.
At St. Gertrude, Garcia and his staff prepared for 16,000 worshipers to come for Ash Wednesday services, which will go from noon until 9 p.m.
Receiving the ashes is important to many Latinos who believe that something terrible will happen to them during the year if they don't, Garcia said. "So we have the added job" of explaining Lent to the misinformed, he said.
