Quinquageslma

Quinquageslma is the name by which the Sunday before Lent (q.v.) is designated. The first Sunday in Lent being called Quadragesima, this being further from Easter was called Quinquagesima (or fiftieth Sunday), reckoning the distance from Easter in round numbers. It was sometimes called Quinquagesima, poenitentioe, in order to distinguish it from the other Quinquagesima, or interval between Easter and Whitsuntide, called Quinquagesima paschalis, or loetitioe. It is also called Shrove-Sunday (q.v.). In ordinary years Quinquagesima is the forty-ninth day before Easter; in leap-year it is the fiftieth.