The Bulletin - The Letter

Saturday, 18th February 2012

Lent

Regular shopping expeditions can’t fail to remind us of celebrations, religious in origin, but now increasingly commercialised. We often forget that holidays were originally the Holy Days which studded the medieval calendar. Nowadays, Christmas seems to begin in September, interrupted only by the gorgeous display of Hallowe’en pumpkins.

Before the end of December, Christmas cards are rapidly succeeded on the supermarket shelves by loving Valentine messages to remind us of 14 February, accompanied by hot cross buns and chocolate bunnies in early anticipation of Easter. Soon a promotion of lemons and pancake mixes will notice Shrove Tuesday and rapidly after that will come Mothering Sunday with lots of opportunities for sales of flowers, chocolates and the like. So throughout the Church’s year there are marketing opportunities.

It is however difficult to sell abstinence or to promote sales for the season of Lent. Even Advent has now got calendars, but no brilliant advertising has yet homed in on Lent. No big demand for ashes for Ash Wednesday. ‘Buy less for Lent’ has little appeal. For us, then, it is a particular opportunity to consider the temptations of our material world, which at the most extreme may lead to greed and covetousness. Lent allows us time to reconsider, not just to give up chocolate or gin and tonic, but to do ‘those things which we ought to have done’ to remember old friends, visit the frail, be more appreciative and less critical of the good works of others, give more to charity, prepare ourselves for the greatest Feast of all.

Rachel Waterhouse