Stained-glass illustration: a plain wooden cross on a hill at dusk, two palm fronds at its foot.

Lent and Holy Week.

Lent is the forty days of repentance and return that lead to Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday. Its last week, Holy Week, runs from Palm Sunday, when Christ entered Jerusalem, through Good Friday to the Easter Vigil.

The days ahead

Ash WednesdayWednesday 10 February 2027 Violet or purple; black in the Missouri Synod
Laetare SundaySunday 7 March 2027 Rose, where that is the practice; otherwise the Lent colour
Palm SundaySunday 21 March 2027 Red in the Roman rite and in Episcopal use; scarlet or purple in the ELCA
Good FridayFriday 26 March 2027 Red in the Roman rite and in Episcopal use; black in the Missouri Synod
Ash WednesdayWednesday 1 March 2028 Violet or purple; black in the Missouri Synod
Laetare SundaySunday 26 March 2028 Rose, where that is the practice; otherwise the Lent colour
Palm SundaySunday 9 April 2028 Red in the Roman rite and in Episcopal use; scarlet or purple in the ELCA
Good FridayFriday 14 April 2028 Red in the Roman rite and in Episcopal use; black in the Missouri Synod
The next dates appear here as the calendar turns.

See the stoles

What each tradition wears

Roman Catholic: Violet or purple through Lent, rose on Laetare Sunday where that is the practice, red on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, and white at the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper.
Episcopal: Purple or violet, or the unbleached Lenten array. Red through Holy Week, except at Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday.
Lutheran: Purple through Lent. In ELCA guidance, scarlet, a deeper red than Pentecost's, or purple from Palm Sunday through Wednesday of Holy Week, and scarlet or white on Maundy Thursday. In the Missouri Synod, black on Good Friday, and on Ash Wednesday as an alternative to violet.
Methodist: Purple.

In the Roman calendar Lent ends before the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday, and the Easter Triduum follows.

The whole church year, tradition by tradition

Choosing

For Lent itself, the purple stole or the purple simple cross. Where red is worn in Holy Week, as on Palm Sunday and Good Friday in the Roman Missal, and through the week in Episcopal use except at Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday, the red. Where black is worn on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday, as in the Missouri Synod, the black.

Our red is the bright red of Pentecost, not the deeper scarlet the ELCA prefers for Holy Week.

Sources: The Roman Missal, General Instruction ch. VI, §§346 to 347 (USCCB); Episcopal Diocese of Ohio, Liturgical Colors & Seasons; Scottish Episcopal Church calendar; Nebraska Synod (ELCA), The Colors of the Church Year; ELCA Worship blog, the colours of Holy Week; Concordia Publishing House, A Simple Guide to Liturgical Colors; UMC.org, Colors, liturgical.

Lent and Holy Week