The term is sometimes applied to the seventy days starting on Septuagesima Sunday and ending on the Saturday after Easter.

Quadragesima serves as the Latin word for the season of Lent, which (not counting Sundays) is forty days long.

"[2] Septuagesima was also the day on which one could begin a forty-day Lenten fast that excluded from its observance Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

The readings at Matins for this week are the first few chapters of Genesis, telling of the creation of the world, of Adam and Eve, the fall of man and resulting expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and the story of Cain and Abel.

The liturgical books for the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite revised after the Second Vatican Council omit Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima Sundays, which are found in the earlier versions, and treat this period as part of Ordinary Time, so that the use of violet vestments and the omission of "Alleluia" in the liturgy do not begin until Ash Wednesday.

Glory be to the Father... Beginning at First Vespers of Septuagesima, Alleluia is not said again until the Easter Vigil, and the Gloria is not said on Sundays.

Churches in the Episcopal and Continuing Anglican movement that use the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (or the various missals based upon it) also observe Septuagesima.

It is 22 days long because it begins on the Sunday before Septuagesima, but not 24 since the Byzantine Lent commences on a Monday instead of a Wednesday.