Great Lent

The forty days, the Church's long journey of repentance toward Pascha.

Great Lent is the Orthodox Church's fast before Pascha (Easter). It begins on Clean Monday and keeps forty days; then Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday, and Holy Week follow, 48 days in all. On weekdays meat, dairy, eggs, fish, wine, and oil are set aside; on Saturdays and Sundays wine and oil are allowed.

Great Lent and Holy Week in 2027

Both calendars: Monday, March 15 to Saturday, May 1, 2027. Pascha: Sunday, May 2, 2027.

In 2028: Monday, February 28 to Saturday, April 15, 2028.

Great Lent and Holy Week 2027 in the moveable cycle ›

Great Lent is the longest and most solemn fast of the Orthodox year: forty days of repentance, prayer, and self-denial that prepare the faithful for Holy Week and Pascha. It is not a season of gloom but of clarification, a stripping-away of what distracts, so that the heart can be turned again toward God and the Resurrection can be met with a readied soul.

The fast has three strands the Fathers always keep together: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. To eat more simply while praying more and giving more is the whole shape of it; fasting from food without fasting from anger and greed, St John Chrysostom warns, profits nothing. The services grow longer and more penitential, the great Canon of St Andrew is read, and the Church sings, again and again, the prayer of St Ephrem.

Holy Week is kept more strictly still, and the Orthros calendar marks every day of Holy Week as a strict fast. The Typikon itself allows one meal with wine and oil on Great Thursday, the day of the Mystical Supper, and many parishes keep it so. On Great Friday those who are able keep a total fast, and others take a little bread and water after Vespers. On Holy Saturday a little wine is taken after the Liturgy of St Basil, but no oil. Then the fast opens into Pascha.

The dates of Great Lent move with Pascha, beginning on Clean Monday, 48 days before the feast. As with every fast, the measure is not a law to be gripped but a gift to be received: the exact keeping of it is set with one's priest, according to one's strength and state of life.

Great Lent in 2027, day by day

Meat, dairy, eggs, and fish are set aside every day. What else each day allows is below, from Clean Monday to Palm Sunday, for the New Calendar. The Old Calendar keeps the same days, except that the Annunciation falls on April 7 rather than March 25. Holy Week, kept more strictly still, is described above.

Great Lent and Holy Week 2027, New Calendar, day by day
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
	Mar 15Strict fast, Clean Monday, the Beginning of Great Lent	16Strict fast	17Strict fast	18Strict fast	19Strict fast	20Wine and oil
21Wine and oil, Sunday of Orthodoxy	22Strict fast	23Strict fast	24Strict fast, Forefeast of the Annunciation	25Fish, wine and oil, The Annunciation	26Strict fast, Leavetaking of the Annunciation and Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel	27Wine and oil
28Wine and oil, Sunday of St Gregory Palamas	29Strict fast	30Strict fast	31Strict fast	Apr 1Strict fast	2Strict fast	3Wine and oil
4Wine and oil, Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross	5Strict fast	6Strict fast	7Strict fast	8Strict fast	9Strict fast	10Wine and oil
11Wine and oil, Sunday of St John Climacus	12Strict fast	13Strict fast	14Strict fast	15Strict fast, Thursday of the Great Canon	16Strict fast	17Wine and oil, Saturday of the Akathist
18Wine and oil, Sunday of St Mary of Egypt	19Strict fast	20Strict fast	21Strict fast	22Strict fast	23Strict fast	24Wine and oil, Lazarus Saturday
25Fish, wine and oil, The Entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday)

Strict: no oil or wine
Wine, oil: wine and olive oil allowed
Fish: fish, wine, and oil allowed
✦ an observance of the season, listed below

Within the fast

Monday, March 15: Clean Monday, the Beginning of Great Lent
Sunday, March 21: Sunday of Orthodoxy
Wednesday, March 24: Forefeast of the Annunciation
Thursday, March 25: The Annunciation
Friday, March 26: Leavetaking of the Annunciation and Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel
Sunday, March 28: Sunday of St Gregory Palamas
Sunday, April 4: Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross
Sunday, April 11: Sunday of St John Climacus
Thursday, April 15: Thursday of the Great Canon
Saturday, April 17: Saturday of the Akathist
Sunday, April 18: Sunday of St Mary of Egypt
Saturday, April 24: Lazarus Saturday
Sunday, April 25: The Entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday)

The Sundays of Great Lent

Each Sunday of the fast has its own theme. In 2027, on both calendars (the Church of Finland keeps the Western Easter):

Sunday of Orthodoxy, March 21, 2027: the Triumph of Orthodoxy, the return of the icons to the churches in 843.
Sunday of St Gregory Palamas, March 28, 2027: his witness that by prayer and fasting we can share in the uncreated light of God.
Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, April 4, 2027: the Cross, set in the midst of the church at the middle of the fast, to be venerated.
Sunday of St John Climacus, April 11, 2027: John of the Ladder, who became abbot at Sinai and wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent.
Sunday of St Mary of Egypt, April 18, 2027: her sincere repentance, which shows it is never too late to repent.

Then come Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, and Holy Week.

Source: OCA: Sundays of Lent

Saints of Great Lent

Orthros carries 78 lives of saints remembered during Great Lent, on the New Calendar. Among them:

Questions about Great Lent

When does Great Lent start?

On Clean Monday, the day after Forgiveness Sunday, 48 days before Pascha. Its date moves with Pascha each year. Nearly every Orthodox church, on either calendar, keeps the same Pascha, so Lent begins on the same day for both.

How long is Great Lent?

Forty days, from Clean Monday to the Friday before Lazarus Saturday. With Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday, and Holy Week, the fast before Pascha lasts 48 days.

Why do some Orthodox Christians fast for 55 days?

The 55-day Great Lent is kept by the Coptic Orthodox Church, which adds a week of preparation before the forty days. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the fast before Pascha lasts 48 days.

What can you eat during Great Lent?

On weekdays the fast is strict: no meat, dairy, eggs, fish, wine, or oil. On Saturdays and Sundays wine and oil are allowed. Fish is allowed on the feast of the Annunciation and on Palm Sunday. The measure for each person is set with their priest.

What is Clean Monday?

The first day of Great Lent. It follows Forgiveness Sunday, when the faithful ask one another's forgiveness at Vespers, so that the fast begins reconciled. On the first four evenings of Lent the Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete is sung.

Is Orthodox Lent the same as Western Lent?

No. Western Lent begins on Ash Wednesday; Orthodox Great Lent begins on Clean Monday. The dates usually differ too, because the Orthodox Church reckons Pascha by the older Julian rule, though some years both Easters fall on the same Sunday.

What is the Great Canon of St Andrew?

A long hymn of repentance by St Andrew of Crete. It is sung in four parts at Great Compline on the first four evenings of Lent, and whole at Matins on the Thursday of the fifth week, with the life of St Mary of Egypt.

More questions about the Orthodox Church, answered ›

“O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency, lust of power, and idle talk. But grant rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother; for blessed art Thou unto ages of ages. Amen.”

The Prayer of St Ephrem the Syrian (Hapgood, Service Book, 1906; public domain)

In Orthros

Orthros shades each day of Great Lent in its own light, marks the measure the Church appoints, and keeps the Prayer of St Ephrem and the Lenten services, always pointing to your priest for how the fast is kept. Each text with its source shown.