As a creature of habit, I've found change to be challenging regardless of how minor it is. Knowing such resistance is a part of human nature, I marvel at the infinite wisdom of Holy Mother Church as She lovingly provides a season between the joys of Christmas and the penitential character of Lent.
"This liturgical period is a prelude to Lent and a remote preparation for Easter. It serves as a time of transition during which the soul passes from Christmas joys to Lenten sobriety. Even though fasting is not yet obligatory, the color of the vestments is already changed to violet.
The Septuagesima season always begins with the ninth week before Easter and includes three Sundays called respectively Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima. These names which were borrowed from the numeral system of the time, denote a series of decades working back from the commencement of Lent, which is known in Latin as Quadragesima.
As the intervals between these Sundays only consist of seven days it is evident that this name must not be taken in a strictly arithmetical sense: but whereas Quadragesima comes exactly at the the closing day of the 4th decade before Easter, Quinquagesima (47 days) falls within the 5th decade, Sexagesima (54 days) within the 6th. Septuagesima (61 days) within the 7th.
During the season of Septuagesima, the Church lingers especially over the following events: we see the fall of Adam resulting in original sin and its baneful consequences (Septuagesima); the malice of men, actual sin and the Flood which was its punishment (Sexagesima); and finally the sacrifices of Abraham and Melchisedech (Quinquagesima), which foreshadowed the sacrifice which God required from His own Son as a satisfaction for the sins of the whole human race."
Although I was not aware of this preparatory season in my youth (nor did I ever hear the "50 cent" words associated with it), I fully appreciate this time of transition as an adult!
Source: St. Andrew's Daily Missal, copyright 1949, pages 92-93 (Nihil Obstat: J. Gerard Kealy, D.D., Cens. Theol. Deput.; Imprimatur: Samuel Cardinal Stritch, Archrepiscopus Chicagiensis)
Photo by Josh Applegate