Lent

By the fourth or fifth centuries, most churches were keeping the forty days before Easter as a time of fasting and penitence. Fasting usually meant eating only one meal a day, though the very young, and the weak were exempt. This one meal was eaten at the hour of none in mid-afternoon. By the late middle ages the time for none had shifted to our noon, and an additional light meal had been added at the end of the day.

The first day of Lent became known as Ash Wednesday, because of the practice of throwing ashes onto the heads of public penitents. This was a very grave ceremony in ancient times, involving public penance and isolation of the penitents, unwashed and silent, from Ash Wednesday up until the Thursday before Easter. By the medieval period most people were receiving the ashes.

On Palm Sunday in the cities, one week before Easter, palms were blessed at a church outside the city walls. There would then be a procession up to the city gate where a choir of boys would be perched above the gate, singing Gloria, laud et honor. Then everyone knelt to pray. After the prayers, the procession continued on its way toward the cathedral, the people throwing flowers and palms in its path. The bells would peal joyously as eveyone entered the cathedral for the mass.

On Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday, there was a special mass where enough bread 'hosts' would be concecrated for both this day and Good Friday. There was no mass on Friday, but instead there were special prayers and ceremonies. All through Lent, the altar and crucifix had been covered with purple veils.Now they would be uncovered. The altar was washed with holy water and dried using the palms from Palm Sunday. The cross was placed at the foot of the altar and the people then would creep forward on their knees to kiss it. Kings performed the ceremony of washing the feet of poor men.