Lent this year starts on March 18. It is the strictest fasting season of the year, when dairy and meat products are not allowed. It is a period of penance and forgiveness of sins. This year Lent ends on May 5, when it is celebrated Easter. Archpriest Octavian Mosin has told Info-Prim Neo that Great Lent, as it is also called, has two aspects – material and spiritual. “Praying and fasting are two wings of the Christians that help them develop spiritually,” said the archpriest. Lent is the longest fasting season of the year. It lasts for 40 days plus Holy Week, which is the week before Easter. This period prepares the Christians for the return to life of Jesus Christ. “It is the strictest fasting period when the faithful are recommended to eat dry or boiled products on Fridays and Wednesdays,” said Octavian Mosin. Meat, fish, eggs, milk and products from them and the wines are banned during Lent. The priests can allow the sick people and children to eat certain prohibited products, except for Wednesdays and Fridays and the first and last weeks. Lent consists of two periods. The first period lasts for six weeks and ends on Palm Sunday, when the faithful are allowed to eat fish. The second period begins the next day after Palm Sunday and continues until Easter. During Lent, priests’ clothes and the decorations in churches are black or dark violet in color. The Church calls on the believers to go through penitential preparation through prayer, penance, repentance, almsgiving, and self-denial.