Beginning on Ash Wednesday and continuing for forty days (not including Sundays) until Easter, the season of Lent is a penitential season. Throughout Lent we focus our attention on our repentance over sin and on the suffering and death of Jesus for our sin. While our sins against God and against one another cause us deep sadness, we experience also deep joy in the love that Jesus has demonstrated toward us by carrying all our sins to the cross to redeem us.
The liturgical color of Lent is violet, which symbolizes repentance—sorrow over sin.
The liturgical color of Good Friday (and sometimes Ash Wednesday) is black, which symbolizes death and mourning.