Don’t you just love these names? Septuagesima, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima… I just love them, and although I would always go for a silly sounding Latin name over its modern equivalent, I also rather love the sound of Next Before Lent. I think there is something eminently noble about a Sunday with a good name that is simply missing in the dreary Lent 4 or Trinity 3.
But it does rather beg the question, why on earth were these names used in the first place. Meaning respectively 70th, 60th and 50th, the general idea is that these Sundays mark a period of time up to the end of Easter Week. In the case of Septuagesima (70th), it is true that this Sunday falls 70 days before the end of Easter Week. But that doesn’t explain why seven days later, the Sunday should suddenly mark a period of 60 days; or seven days after that, a period of 50 days. Time seems to be contracting somewhat, with spaces of seven days at one end and ten at the other.
It rather reminds me of the song I am trying to learn on the guitar at the moment, the rather wonderful A Lady of a Certain Age, by the Divine Comedy. Those of you who know it will remember that the lady in question finds herself owning up to first an age of 70, then 63, and finally 53, with the nice young man to whom she is chatting becoming more and more sceptical. Perhaps she was thinking of the Sundays before Lent, and simply getting confused!
For a much more learned look at what lies behind this lovely sounding Sunday, you might be interested in this blog, which I found just now.
https://liturgialatina.blogspot.com/2011/03/quinquagesima-sunday.html
But for now, good luck with deciding on what to give up, or take up, for Lent.