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For a Christian, a festival is a time for celebration marked by special event or occasion. In Christianity there is a calendar which is made up by seasons, in which Christian festivals take place. In each season there are a number of cycles. There are two main cycles in the Christian calendar. One of them is the Christmas-cycle. The other cycle is the Easter-cycle which is made up of Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost.  

In the Catholic Church the Easter cycle usually falls between March 22 and April 25. In the Easter cycle we have Lent and Holy Week. Tridium is a big celebration in Holy week which starts with Maundy Thursday and ends with Easter Sunday.

Lent

Lent is the period of 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Lent involves fasting and penitence, both in preparation for Easter and as a way of spiritually "joining" Jesus with the fasting and meditation he did for 40 days in the wilderness. The fasting rules in the Roman Catholic Church are not strict.

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For Eastern Orthodox Christians today the rules of fasting are strict: just one meal a day, in the evening, and no meat, fish, eggs, or butter is permitted.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday, is the first day of Holy Week which ends with Easter the following Sunday. It commemorates Jesus' entry into Jerusalem prior to be crucified a few days later. Actual ceremonies typically include a procession of palm fronds which are blessed and will later be burned. The ashes from the burnt palm fronds are used in the next year's Ash Wednesday.

Maundy Thursday

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