A character of mourning was always an important feature of the season of Lent. People would give up certain pleasures, entertainments, and festivities. Even within the liturgy this mourning was clearly expressed; no flowers decorated the altars, the organs went silent, weddings and other solemnities were banned, and the liturgical colors (purple and black) proclaimed the spirit of penance and grief. These laws are still followed in the Catholic Church, though somewhat mitigated from their original severity. In medieval times people would forgo all private entertainments at home that were of joyous and hilarious nature.

At the royal courts in past centuries, Lent was an official period of mourning. The monarchs and their households dressed in black, as did most of the nobility and people in general. England remained loyal to this custom even after the Reformation; Queen Elizabeth I (1603) and the ladies of her court wore black all through Lent. In Russia, up to the twentieth century, all secular music ceased in Lent. During the first and last weeks all public amusements were forbidden. Women dressed in black and laid their ornaments aside. In the rural sections of Poland, dancing and singing still cease on Ash Wednesday. Both men and women don clothes of dark and somber color; the girls relinquish their finery and multicolored ribbons, and an atmosphere of devout recollection descends over the entire village. In many countries the expressions of mourning are now restricted to the last days of Holy Week, as in the Latin nations where women dress in black on Good Friday. In Malta, the men, too, wear black.