- Quinquagesima
Quinquagesima is the name for the Sunday before
Ash Wednesday . It was also called Quinquagesima Sunday, Shrove Sunday or Esto Mihi. The name originates fromLatin "quinquagesimus" (fiftieth), referring to the fifty days beforeEaster Sunday using inclusive counting which counts both Sundays (normal counting would count only one of these). Since the forty days of the Lenten fast included only weekdays, the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, succeeds Quinquagesima Sunday by only three days.The earliest Quinquagesima Sunday can occur is
February 1 and the latest isMarch 7 .The reforms of the
Second Vatican Council included the elimination of this term for this Sunday (and the two immediately before it -Sexagesima andSeptuagesima Sundays), and these Sundays are part of Ordinary Time. The contemporary service books of many Anglican provinces do not use the term but it remains in theBook of Common Prayer . According to the reformed Roman RiteRoman Catholic calendar, this Sunday is now known by its number withinOrdinary Time - fourth through ninth, depending upon the date ofEaster - or the fourth through the ninth Sunday after Epiphany in the contemporary Anglican calendars, and that of variousProtestant polities. The extraordinary form of the Roman rite continues to refer to the Sunday prior to "Ash Wednesday" as "Quinquagesima Sunday", and the two Sundays immediately preceding it as "Sexagesima" and "Septuagesima" Sundays.In 2008, Quinquagesima fell on
February 3 .
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