The celebration of this season is a preparation for Holy Lent. The three Sundays of Pre-Lent come seventy, sixty and fifty days before Easter. The liturgical color of this season which prepares us to anticipate the spiritual rigors of the Lenten Season is rose. Lent then takes on the somber hue of purple signifying the seven-week period of penitence and introspection and our conversion of heart.
During Pre-Lent the Alleluia heard before the proclamation of the Gospel is eliminated from the Mass and will continue to be so through Lent until Easter morning. In place of the Alleluias, we will hear only a mournful chant called the Tract. Also begun in Pre-Lent is the elimination of the singing of the Gloria which will remain silenced through the Lenten season until the Resurrection of Jesus is proclaimed on Easter.
Floral adornments of the high altar are still appropriate through Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, though such adornment may be abandoned if so desired.