I think I posted this some other year but if you haven't heard it, I gave a talk on Lent some years ago you may be interested in listening to. Lent is a time of returning to the Gospel with renewed fervor. What we should be doing all year around, we make a special commitment to do during Lent. It is a liturgical journey from the desert, to the Cross, and to the empty tomb — a time of purification and enlightenment.
Did you know that while the term "Lent" means "Spring" (thus incurring the ire of certain fundamentalists), the word in Latin, "Quadragesima", simply means "forty days". Since Latin is the official language of the church, you can tell your fundamentalist friends that when they bring it up.
The same goes for Easter; it's officially Resurrection Sunday (Dominica Resurrectionis).
In Italian Lent is "Quaresima" and Easter is "Pasqua" (from "Pascha"; another Latin word for Easter is "Dominica Paschalis"; this of course comes from the Hebrew word I believe). In Spanish the words are "Cuaresima" and "Pascua" or something like that.
It's only in English & the Germanic languages that anyone can think that Easter is a pagan celebration :-)
In Polish Easter is "Wielkanoc" which translates directly to Great Night. Poland is a Catholic country, unlike Great Britain or Germany :)