Answer to the previous Catholic trivia question: Select the correct response concerning the length (in days) of the Lenten season:
This question got very few responses, but anyway the third choice, “40 days including Sundays”- which was incorrect- got half the votes. This is the first question in a few tries at this blog’s Catholic Trivia to which the majority of respondents voted for the incorrect choice.
The last choice, “40 days not including Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy saturday,” got no votes.
The correct choice, “40 days of penance,” and, I think, the most misleading possibility- even more so because it was placed at the top of the poll- “40 days of Lent,” split the rest of the votes evenly.
I thought many would have fallen for “40 days of Lent,” including myself if a Basilian seminarian hadn’t shown me otherwise. However, if one counts the days from Ash Wednedsay to Wednesday of Holy Week inclusive, without Sundays that don’t count as Lenten days per se, then this totals only 37 days. One needs to include Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday to get to 40 days. Since Vatican II emphasized the Easter Triduum, the non-Lenten Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, like the preceding 37 days of Lent, are days of penance. Thus, three and thirty-seven add up to forty days.
Here is the next question, along with which I’ll create a separate page of this blog where I hope readers will contribute their favourite icons (The full explanation will be posted on my “Iconostasis” page):
Blessings,
Warren
