by Jeff Maples | very year in February or March, Ash Wednesday kicks off the first day of Lent — a largely Roman Catholic tradition which is essentially a six-week season of grieving and remorse over your sin. It is, however, also observed by Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, and Methodists officially...
According to Catholics, Lent is derived from the 40 days Yeshua spent fasting in the wilderness, but it is admitted that the observance of Lent was unknown to the disciples and it did not find its way into the church until several centuries after the time of the Messiah. Lent was an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz -- which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing. So the 40 days of Lent is connected with the Babylonian goddess Ashtoreth/ Astarte/Ishtar (the origin of the word Easter), and the worship of Tammuz.