Every year, there is always some confusion as to just when Lent ends and whether or not the Sundays of Lent are, indeed, part of the Lenten Season. Lent officially ends when the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday begins because the Mass of the Lord’s Supper ushers in the Holy Triduum, a liturgical season in its own right and the shortest of the liturgical year. As for the practice of Lenten penances, those are voluntary practices that people take up as personal devotions in addition to the penances required by the Church on the Fridays of Lent. As voluntary penances can be voluntarily set aside, taking a break from them on Sundays in honor of the Lord’s Day is perfectly fine. That being said, the Sundays of Lent are indeed part of the Lenten season but are not days of fasting. "The 40 days of Lent" has always been more of a metaphor than a literal count. Over the course of history, the season of preparation for Easter Sunday has ranged from one day (in the first century) to 44 (today in the Roman church). Officially since 1970, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sunset on Holy Thursday. Already at the Council of Nicea in 325 the bishops spoke of the quadragesima paschae (Latin for “40 days before Easter”) as the well-established custom. At that time Lent began on the sixth Sunday before Easter and ended at dusk on Holy Thursday—40 days. But the Council also forbade fasting, kneeling, and any other acts of sorrow and penance on Sundays, even in Lent. So only 34 of the 40 days were for fasting. Today, while the season of Lent (Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday) is technically 44 days, the number of days for penance and fasting before Easter is still 40 because 44 days minus 6 Sundays equals 38, plus Good Friday and Holy Saturday, which while not actually part of the Lenten Season can be days of fasting, equals 40.