LENT:Lent is the Christian time of preparation before Easter. In Western Christianity Ash Wednesday marks the first day or the beginning of Lent, 40 days before Easter (Sundays are not included). Lent is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline.

• The purpose is to set aside time for reflection on Jesus Christ - His suffering and His sacrifice, His life, death, burial and resurrection. Included in the period of Lent is Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of the Holy Week

• On this day Christians remember the entry of Jesus to Jerusalem, where he had gone to celebrate the Passover and where he was warmly welcomed by the crowd with palm branches in their hands.

• Christians gather outside the church holding in their hands palm branches blessed by the priest.

• After that, a small procession carries the palms inside the church for the celebration of the Mass.

It includes the reading of the Passion of Jesus.

• Generally people bring home the blessed branches of palm, to keep them as a symbol of peace, giving them to their family and friends. As a tradition the householder uses a stick dipped in holy water during the Easter Vigil, to bless the set table on Easter Day.

Lent ends with the Holy Thursday, the day of the beginning of the Easter Triduum.The term "Easter Triduum" refers to the three days before Easter Sunday, in which we remember the Passion and Death of Christ before His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

• On Holy Thursday the Christians go to church where they take part in the institution of the Eucharist and the washing of the feet, which occurred in the Last Supper, when Jesus accomplished them with the apostles.

• During the holy Mass the priest, as Jesus did, washes the feet of twelve people in the community.

After the Mass on Holy Thursday, in the churches are set up altars of repose,commonly known as sepulchers.

These altars are spaces used to house the consecrated Eucharistic species and keep them until the afternoon of Friday.

to celebrate the rite of worship of the Cross.

The Good Friday Christians gather in church to listen to the story of the Passion and Death of Jesus;

to address God a prayer of intercession for all mankind;

On the evening of Good Friday in many churches in the area people celebrate the Stations of the Cross. The Via Crucis, or Way of the Cross, a procession where you stop to pray, and that, with readings and meditations, helps Christians to retrace the steps of Jesus’ painful way that leads to Mount Calvary, where he was crucified.

The "14 Stations" are 14 episodes taken from the Gospel. The celebration of the Stations of the Cross is common on the Fridays of Lent, especially Good Friday.

Community celebrations are usually accompanied by various songs and prayers.

In our area there is a strong tradition of celebration of the Via Crucis. One of the most well-known is the Way of the Cross celebrated in Cervaro, a small town near Cassino. The “Living Via Crucis ” of Cervaro is an old tradition celebration. It was an innovation of the oldest religious event, which consisted of the representation "static" of Christ's life.

• Feature of the design and realization of everything required to the staging of the event: from the costumes of Praetorian, with the precious metal armor, the costumes of legionnaires, with the equally decent leather armor, the gladiator traditional Roman Biga.

Currently this event is organized by the Cultural Association "Via Crucis Vivente of Cervaro" , born in 1999.

The holding of the event is divided into several scenes involving about 300 people and culminating in the spectacular resurrection on the town hill, striking the top of the old town lit with hundreds of Roman torches.

• Bells keep silence until the night between Saturday and Sunday; churches are stripped of all ornaments and flowers; on this occasion, Christians are encouraged to fast as a sign of participation in the suffering of Jesus.

• Holy Saturday is the only day of the liturgical year without a specific liturgy. During the day, the church keeps a total silence. Everything is silent waiting for Easter.

Originated back in 1963 by a group of young people from Cervaro, with few resources and much enthusiasm, put on stage the first edition, realizing everything their hands, from costumes to scenery.

• Lent lasts 40 days. 40 is a symbolic number which recalls several events in the Old Testament: 40 days of the universal flood, 40 days spent by the Jews in the desert waiting to enter the promised land, 40 days spent by Moses on Mount Sinai, 40 days used by the Jewish explorers to explore the land which they were to enter in 40 days. We can often find 40 days in the New Testament such as the 40 days Jesus fasted in the desert preparing for Easter and the 40 days that Jesus spent teaching his disciples in the time between the Resurrection and the Assumption.