The penitential spell of Lent is the period of forty week-days beginning on Ash Wednesday. It is a season of the Church year that commemorates the forty days Jesus fasted and prayed in the wilds before he began his public ministry of preaching for repentance.
Six Sundays are within the season, the last, Passion Sunday, marks the commencement of Holy Week. Holy Thursday begins the Triduum earlier than Easter day, which includes Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Lent is the interlude of time in the Christian year between Ash Wednesday and Easter. It is deliberate to be a time of severe personal reflection, self-denial, and repentance.
Many of us are recognizable with the concept or phrase of "giving up something for Lent." This grows out of the self-denial facet of the Lenten season. It is externally denying us of something as a reminder that we are inwardly "denying self, taking up our cross, and following Jesus." We must remember that real self-denial is not the outward prompt of what we gave up, but the inner revolutionize of heart. The Feast of Christ's Resurrection, Holy Pascha, is the utmost Feast of the Church and stands in a class by itself. The next in significance are the Twelve Great Feasts of the Church.