Lent During Coronavirus Quarantine

Lent and quarantine have three important things in common.

First, the root word for both comes from the Latin quadragesima (translated into modern English as ‘forty’).

For Lent, this signifies the forty days before Easter. In the case of a quarantine, quadragesima (or quarantino in Italian) represented the forty days passengers were kept in isolation at Mediterranean ports during the era of the bubonic plague. Historically, we consider this to be the first period of quarantine. Though isolation time now varies, the name remains the same.

Second, they are activities completed with a degree of loneliness.

Quarantine requires a certain measure of solitude. Despite the boom in online communication, the entertainment value in a Zoom party just isn’t the same. Ask all those poor, Tinder millennials forced to take their blind dates to FaceTime.

Lent obliges an essential status of loneliness as well. By definition, Lenten sacrifices are not group activities. In fact, some consider the hardship of loneliness to be an important part of the whole exercise. Which brings me to my last point.

Third, both of full of suffering.

Ahem. Have I mentioned I’ve given up caffeine this year? I love caffeine. You know when I especially love caffeine? When I am in state-imposed exile, languishing in my home office (AKA my bed). Ahem. Have I mentioned that I love drinking coffee in bed?

You get the idea. I’m suffering.

But other people are suffering on a much greater scale. I’m healthy. I have a comfortable home and food to eat. I don’t have a business hemorrhaging money or a career forced to languish.

Why to continue Lent during Coronavirus quarantine

I’ve had several people inquire why I’m still participating in Lent. The conversation usually goes like this:

“Blah, Lent. No one’s still doing that. The situation changed. Try it again next year.”

I agree with all these thoughts. I definitely considered giving up the whole ‘no caffeine’ promise for the season. Because, as I mentioned above, it sucks.

But here’s the thing:

When I make a difficult commitment during Lent, I pretty much think about giving it up every single day, no matter what the circumstances around me are.

Instead, I’m going to keep going. Because when I think about a sacrifice I’m making, my mind eventually comes around to consider all the good things I have in my life. And I think that’s sort of the point.

Happy photo of the days before lent during quarantine–when I was both drinking coffee and allowed outside–to celebrate.

Banner Photo Credit: freestocks on Unsplash