Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, which falls on a different date each year because it’s calculated backward from Pascha (our word for Easter). In 2025, that’s March 3rd. In 2026, it’ll be February 23rd.
But here’s what might surprise you if you’re coming from a Protestant background: the Church doesn’t just drop you into fasting on a Monday morning. We spend three full weeks getting ready.
The Triodion Period
About three weeks before Clean Monday, the Church starts using a special liturgical book called the Triodion. The name means “three odes,” referring to a shorter form of hymns we sing during this season. You’ll hear different Scripture readings at Liturgy, and the themes shift toward repentance, judgment, and reconciliation.
These preparatory Sundays aren’t just warm-up exercises. They’re part of how the Church teaches. Each Sunday focuses on a different Gospel story that prepares our hearts for what’s coming.
The Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee comes first. It’s about humility versus self-righteousness, and interestingly, we don’t fast that week at all, not even on Wednesday and Friday like we normally do. The Church is making a point: fasting without humility is just the Pharisee beating his chest.
Next comes the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. God’s mercy for sinners who return. Then Meatfare Sunday, when we hear about the Last Judgment and eat meat for the last time until Pascha. After that, Cheesefare Sunday, also called Forgiveness Sunday.
Forgiveness Vespers
Cheesefare Sunday evening is when Great Lent actually begins, liturgically speaking. We serve Forgiveness Vespers, and it’s one of the most moving services of the year. At the end, everyone in the church asks forgiveness from everyone else. You go person to person, often with prostrations, saying something like, “Forgive me, a sinner.” And they respond, “God forgives, and I forgive.”
You can’t start a fast holding grudges. That’s the point.
When you leave church that night, Great Lent has begun. Clean Monday morning just continues what started at Vespers.
Why “Clean Monday”?
The name refers to being cleansed from sin, but it also has practical roots. Traditionally, Orthodox Christians would clean their houses thoroughly, getting rid of any meat or dairy products, scrubbing the kitchen. You’re making a clean start.
The fasting on Clean Monday is strict, no meat, dairy, fish, eggs, wine, or oil. Just vegetables, fruits, grains, and water. Some people don’t eat until evening. It’s the first day of a forty-day fast that runs until the Friday before Palm Sunday. Then Holy Week begins, which is its own intense period.
How This Differs from Western Lent
If you grew up Baptist or Methodist, you might’ve observed Lent starting on Ash Wednesday, or maybe you didn’t observe it at all. Catholics and many Protestants begin Lent on Ash Wednesday, which usually falls a couple days after our Clean Monday, but not always, because we calculate Pascha differently than the West calculates Easter. Sometimes we’re on the same day. Often we’re weeks apart.
Western Lent is forty days not counting Sundays, which is why it starts on a Wednesday. Orthodox Great Lent is forty days including Sundays, which is why we start on a Monday. We don’t take Sundays off from fasting during Lent. Every Sunday is a little Pascha, a celebration of the Resurrection, but we still fast.
Living This in Southeast Texas
I’ll be honest: starting a strict fast on a Monday when you’ve got a twelve-hour shift at the plant that week isn’t easy. The Church knows this. Fasting isn’t about perfection or earning salvation, it’s about training your will, learning dependence on God, and making space for prayer. Talk to Fr. Nicholas about what’s realistic for your situation. A refinery worker on rotating shifts and a retired schoolteacher aren’t going to fast identically, and that’s fine.
What matters is that you begin. Clean Monday is an invitation, not a test you pass or fail. The Church has been doing this for centuries, and she knows we’re weak. That’s why she gives us three weeks to get ready. That’s why Forgiveness Vespers comes first. We can’t do this alone, and we can’t do it while nursing resentments.
If you’ve never experienced Great Lent, I’d encourage you to come to Forgiveness Vespers this year. You’ll see what the Church is really about. It’s not a building or a set of rules. It’s a family learning to die and rise with Christ, starting over every year, asking forgiveness, and walking together toward Pascha.
