Lent

Lent is the period of forty days before Easter. You might be wondering why the church uses the number forty so much. Well, in the Bible, the number forty is used a lot. Noah spent forty days and nights on the ark in the Book of Genesis. The Israelites wandered for forty years in the desert before coming across the Promised Land. Jesus fasted in the desert for forty days when he was tempted by the devil.

During Lent, we focus on three important practices:

• Fasting

• Abstain from meat on Fridays in Lent
• Take part in a fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
• For the fast, you can have one meal and two small meals that don't add up to a full meal
• Many people give up something for Lent 

• Prayer

• Lent is a good time for prayer
• We can pray to change our hearts

• Almsgiving
• Donate some of your toys to a local charity
• Give a few dollars of your allowance to church on Sundays

Lent is a quiet time where you strengthen the three practices above and meditate on the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. That doesn't mean you can't have fun, through! There are many fun practices you can take part in! For example, you can... 

1. Make a crown of thorns (this is very easy and can be reused from year to year!)
• Get a plain brown wreath
• Get toothpicks (optional: dye them brown)
• Stick the toothpicks in the wreath
• Every time you make a sacrifice, take a thorn out of the wreath
• By Easter, try to have all the toothpicks be gone!
2. Bury your Alleluia
• During Lent, we don't say "Alleluia"
• You can bury your Alleluia!
• Find a box
• Write "Alleluia" on a piece of paper or find an "Alleluia" coloring sheet on the internet
• Color the Alleluia
• Put it in the box
• Leave the box somewhere
• DO NOT OPEN IT UNTIL EASTER SUNDAY