Lent

From Turtledove

Lent is a holy time in Christianity. It is a forty-day period leading up to Easter.

Though Lent is celebrated by both Catholics and Protestants, there was periodic disagreement between the two about when it should be observed, since Easter is marked as the Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox (the so-called Paschal Moon), and the equinox is marked differently on the Julian and Gregorian Calendars. In 1598, for example, the Paschal Moon occured on the Vernal Equinox, which was also a Saturday; therefore, Catholics celebrated Easter only one day after the vernal equinox. Protestants, who used the Julian Calendar, which lagged ten days behind the Gregorian, did not recognize this as Easter because they believed the vernal equinox had not yet occured. Thus, in England, where Spanish-backed Queen Isabella was persecuting Protestants, the Protestants' only options were to violate the Catholic Lenten fast, thus revealing themselves as Protestants; violate the Protestant Lenten fast, thus violating a tenet of their proscribed religion; or observe the grueling Lenten fast for more than two months straight.

During Lent, the London theaters were allowed to stay open despite their celebratory nature, as they could not afford the loss of revenue for so long a period.