What does «cuaresma» mean in Spanish?
- For Catholics, a time of penance between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Lent is a season of penance and fasting in the Church, comprising 40 days, from Ash Wednesday to midnight on the Saturday preceding Easter Sunday, in imitation of the 40 days of fasting and prayer that Christ spent in the desert. In the early Church, Lent was a period of preparation for Baptism, which was celebrated at Easter, as well as a period of public penance. The imposition of ashes on the foreheads of Christians on Ash Wednesday alludes to this latter character.