40 days?

Jimmy Akin has some good posts collected about the precise definitions of Lent.

Technically there are 43 days, so if one utilizes the St.Patrick's exemption usually given by bishops and applies it to St. Joseph's Day and the Annunciation, one may still end up with a full 40 days of penitential observation. Basically--

I think we can safely allow for leeway and not feel like we're creating loopholes or doing something "wrong". If you need the precision, it's there for you to find. That's what's so lovely about Catholicism: she has all the answers, no matter how nitpicky we wish to be. And even if we like to eschew nitpicking, she still has all the answers for our lives.

For one could also rightly maintain that the 40 days is meant to be observed in our hearts, and less so with our brains and calendars.