Lent Religion Essay

My essay is about the Religion assignment in Muggle Studies class.

A note from Pillow: Okay, I myself am not Catholic, but I have attended a Catholic school since Pre-K. My actual religion is very similar to the Catholic religion. But I want to say, this essay is based on what the Catholics believe. I am not explaining what everyone should believe and what is right. I am explaining what this particular religion believes is right. So I’m not trying to start a religion riot or anything, so don’t get mad at me if I say something that you don’t believe! 

Lent

The Catholic religion celebrates Lent, a forty day period that lasts from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday. Lent is a period of time set aside of prayer and meditation. The main idea is to be able to sort of understand what Jesus Christ (who Catholics believe is the son of God) went through when he stayed in the desert for forty days and forty nights, fasting and even meeting up with the devil. Even though we can never really compare ourselves to the greatest sacrifice of all, in which Christ gave his life for us, we can get a little bit out of living like Christ. Now during Lent, Catholics are supposed to sacrifice something special to them, like a favorite food or game. This is to help understand what sacrifice is like.

Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, takes place the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. People eat pancakes to remember how a long time ago, people weren’t allowed to eat eggs or drink milk during the season of Lent. So instead of just keeping the eggs and milk during Lent and letting them go bad, they would make pancakes the day before Lent began. So still today, Catholic families gather at homes and churches to eat yummy pancakes for dinner, and spend time with friends.

The day after Shrove Tuesday is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. On Ash Wednesday, people go to church to have ashes placed on our foreheads in the sign of the cross. This is supposed to symbolize what people in Jesus’ time did to announce that they had sinned, and that they were sorry for their sins and wanted forgiveness.

As Lent draws to an end, we celebrate Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday takes place the Sunday before Easter. Catholics believe that on Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The people all cried out “Hosanna” and waved palms as he rode in. Later these palms that we wave in Church to remember this day are burnt and the ashes are used for Ash Wednesday next year.

A week later, we celebrate Easter. This is the day Jesus Christ is said to have risen from the dead. After being welcome into Jerusalem by a huge happy crowd, Jesus was then sentenced to death only a few days later by the same crowd. But now he has risen from the dead! Catholics take great pride in this special day, because it is the day when their God came back to them after dying so that they could live.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Sunday
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Sunday
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrove_Tuesday