Season of Lent - Its traditions and practices

By W. T. A. Leslie Fernando

The season of Lent which begins on Ash Wednesday is significant for the Christians all over the world as a period of prayer and repentance. During this season, the Christian performs penance and act of contrition remembering the agony and suffering Christ underwent for the salvation of mankind.

This year the Ash Wednesday falls on February 21.

According to Christian belief - Adam the first man of earth was created by God with soil. On Ash Wednesday at Mass, the priest marks the sign of cross on the forehead of the devotees with ash saying "You are dust and to dust you will return". This reminds us that the death is inevitable and the importance of leading a virtuous life is necessary for everlasting happiness after death.

The ash used on the Ash Wednesday is generally made by burning the palm leaves used on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. On the Palm Sunday the Christians commemorate the triumphant entry of Christ to Jerusalem where people welcomed him carrying Olive branches shouting 'Hossanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hossanna in the Highest" (Matthew 21-10).

Palm Sunday

In Sri Lanka the Oratorian priests in the Dutch times introduced carrying tender coconut palms instead of Olive branches for the procession on the Palm Sunday. Catholics make crosses out of these coconut leaves and preserve them for the Ash Wednesday of the following year and burnt them for ash.

The season of Lent lasts for forty days from Ash Wednesday until the feast of the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday. Christ, before he began his public life spent forty days in prayer, meditation and fasting in preparation of his great ministry. In remembrance of this, forty days have been set apart for Lent in the liturgical calendar.

In the past the Catholics strictly followed the season of Lent as a period of prayer and repentance. They fasted every Friday and abstained from eating meat on Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent. It was a time for prayer, penance and meditation.

At nightfall villagers used to get together and recite Pasan, sermons on the sufferings of Christ and sing plaintive hymns. These practices culminated in the Holy Week, where they focused attention on the passion of Christ and his death on the cross. On the Good Friday the Passion shows were enacted in churches depicting the passion and death of Christ.

Pasan

It was Blessed Joseph Vaz who initiated the performance of Passion shows with images of sacred personages on the model of Catholic puppet drama he had witnessed in Goa.

Fr. Jacome Gonsalvez, the assistant, companion and successor of Blessed Joseph Vaz did much to improve the passion plays. He wrote 'Nine Sermons' to be recited while the dumb Passion show was enacted, called 'Dukprapthi Prsangaya'. To break the tedium of listening to these sermons he composed nine sets of metrical compositions called 'Pasan' or lamentations.

Later he embodied them in 'Desana Namaya Pasan Potha' or the book of Dirges.

The 'Pasan' were composed in laudatory mixed Sinhala found in 'Prasanthi Kavyas' or eulogistic poems. They were set to a mixture of Carnatic ragas and folk music well-known in the soil. People loved not only to sing Pasan but also to listen groups singing them aloud during the season of Lent. Towards the end of the 19th century there came into being many Pasan chants based on the model introduced by Fr. Jacome Gonsalvez.

In the past it was a common sight in Catholic areas along the Western coastal belt to hear groups, singing aloud Pasan at nightfall. Along with Pasan sermons in 'Dukprapthi Prasangaya' and plaintive chants like 'Kayaduskara Prarthanava' and 'Maluyane Yagnawa' too were recited in the chanting style of Sinhala and Tamil prose. These Pasan, sermons and plaintive chants helped to create a penitential atmosphere for the season.

Passion shows have been enacted in Sri Lanka during the time of the Dutch persecution. It is on record on the 'Oratorian Mission' that there were passion shows in Kandy and in Vanni during the season of Lent and later in Trincomalee and several other places. When Fr. Jacome Gonsalves was residing at Bolawatta, there were lively scenes of prayer, hymns and processions during the culminating with passion shows.

'The times have changed. Today Lenten rules are relaxed and Catholics are bound to fast only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Lenten traditions like detachment and self-denial are not observed. Many extravagant celebrations and feasts do take place during the season. They say that authentic Christian living is more important than self-imposed penances.

Passion plays

The chanting of Pasan, sermons and plaintive hymns are rarely found now. It is in very few places that people get together and perform traditional passion plays. In many churches they have the three hours of agony of Christ on the cross to fulfil the obligation. On the other hand sophisticated drama on the life and passion of Christ are enacted in various places with profit, entertainment and other aims and objectives in view.

There is a school of thought that include some clergy who advocate that the traditional passion plays and the three hours of agony of Christ on the cross should be abandoned. They submit that although the passion shows served some purpose in the past, today they are an anachronism to the enlightened Catholics in the modern age.

It should be emphasised that the traditional passion shows have been enacted for several centuries for the instruction and edification of the faithful and they have stood the test of time. Even today when the death of Christ is enacted with statues on Good Friday, it moves the people to the depths of their souls with devotion.

If Passion plays were to be damned as a useless emotional exercise, there are so many other Catholic traditions and practices that have to be condemned and censured.

Spiritual exercises

We hear of bleeding from wooden statues and reflections of statues on walls which are a temporary phenomenon and Catholics flock in their thousands to these places. There are also various healing services based on mass hypnotism and artful devices. Some decades ago large crowds gathered for miraculous cures at Kudagama but now it is found to be a farce and the place is deserted. In comparison with those emotional outbursts passion shows are a harmless spiritual exercise.

It is customary for the Catholics in Sri Lanka to come to their native place for religious observances during the Holy Week. They do so for Christmas as well. But after the Christmas Mass, they spend the time on festivity, merry making and visiting relations and friends.

On the contrary more emphasis is placed on religious observances at Easter.

The Passion plays and three hours of agony on the cross have helped in no small measure for this religious atmosphere at Lent.

On the other hand by abandoning the traditional passion shows, we would make more room for sophisticated drama and commercialisation on the life and passion of Christ.

Since of late an effort is made by the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka to revive some Lenten traditions and practices like Pasan, sermons and plaintive hymns.

More attention is also paid to penance, meditations and the Way of the Cross. Extravagant celebrations and feasts are discouraged during Lent. We hope that these endeavours of the Church to enliven the season of Lent and bring forth its significance would meet with success.