Question
I was counting the calendar and noticed there seem to be more than "40 days" in Lent. Are there still "40 Days?" How do we count the "40 Days" today?
--Funk in Phoenix
Answer
Yes, there are more than 40 days to Lent. In fact, in the past there were as many as 8 weeks of Lent. 40 is a symbolic number, as seen in many events in the Bible. It is not an exact counting. For instance, look at the account of the Ascension of our Lord in the Acts of the Apostles.
The church today counts the "forty days " from the First Sunday of Lent until Holy Thursday, inclusive [Commentary on the General Norms of the Liturgical Year and the Calendar].
The days before the First Sunday "are Lent" but are considered preparatory days. In the liturgical books these particular days are listed as "Thursday after Ash Wednesday, Friday after Ash Wednesday and Saturday after Ash Wednesday." Many people were told at one time in the past of Sunday as a day off. However, this was probably at a time when the Paschal Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil & Easter Sunday) was not celebrated or ignored. This Season (of the Sacred Triduum) was properly restored in the 1950s and then with the new liturgical calendar and year, promulgated in 1969. Now there are three distinct season, Lent (Ash Wednesday - Holy Thursday), Triduum (Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday) and Easter (Easter Sunday to Pentecost). There are 44 days of Lent, 3 for the Triduum and 50 for Easter.
Incidentally, in some Eastern Rite churches, the Lent begins on "Ash Monday" and goes until the Friday before Palm Sunday. Mentioned above is the Roman Rite and comments from the General Norms of the Liturgical Year and Calendar, that was made in 1969.