Can anybody tell me why Ash Wednesday is called Ash Wednesday?

Question

My daughter asked me this morning & I really didn't have a clue.

Answer 1

In the Western Christian calendar, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. It occurs forty-six days before Easter, but Lent is nevertheless considered forty days long, because Sundays in this period are not counted as days of penance. It falls on different dates from year to year, according to the date of Easter; it can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10. Ash Wednesday can fall on Leap Day only during a leap year for which April 15 is Easter Sunday. The next time Ash Wednesday will fall on Leap Day will be in 2096, the first such year since the 1752 adoption of the Gregorian Calendar.

At Masses and services of worship on this day, worshippers are blessed with ashes by the celebrating priest or minister. The priest or minister marks the forehead of each participant with black ashes, in the shape of a cross, which the worshipper traditionally retains until washing it off after sundown. In many Christian churches, the minister of ashes may also be a layperson or non-clergyman. The symbolism echoes the ancient Near Eastern tradition of throwing ash over one's head signifying repentance before God (as related in the Bible). The priest or minister offers the worshipper an instruction while applying the ashes.

Answer 2

Assuming you want to know whay it is called "ASH" Wednesday:

The name dies cinerum (day of ashes) which it bears in the Roman Missal is found in the earliest existing copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary and probably dates from at least the eighth century. On this day all the faithful according to ancient custom are exhorted to approach the altar before the beginning of Mass, and there the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed, marks the forehead -- or in case of clerics upon the place of the tonsure -- of each the sign of the cross, saying the words: "Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." The ashes used in this ceremony are made by burning the remains of the palms blessed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. In the blessing of the ashes four prayers are used, all of them ancient. The ashes are sprinkled with holy water and fumigated with incense. The celebrant himself, be he bishop or cardinal, receives, either standing or seated, the ashes from some other priest, usually the highest in dignity of those present. In earlier ages a penitential procession often followed the rite of the distribution of the ashes, but this is not now prescribed.

Answer 3

On this day all the faithful according to ancient custom are exhorted to approach the altar before the beginning of Mass, and there the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed, marks the forehead -- or in case of clerics upon the place of the tonsure -- of each the sign of the cross, saying the words: "Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." The ashes used in this ceremony are made by burning the remains of the palms blessed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. In the blessing of the ashes four prayers are used, all of them ancient. The ashes are sprinkled with holy water and fumigated with incense.

Answer 4

Ash Wednesday derives its call from the prepare of putting ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a demonstration of repentance. The ashes used are generally amassed after the Palm Crosses from the previous 3 hundred and sixty 5 days's Palm Sunday are burned. The call dies cinerum (day of ashes) which it bears in the Roman Missal is located in the earliest latest copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary and in all threat dates from a minimum of the 8th century. on in the present day all the dedicated in accordance to historical custom are exhorted to physique of strategies the altar until eventually now the commencing up of Mass, and there the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes until eventually now blessed, marks the brow — or in case of clerics upon the situation of the tonsure — of each and every the sign of the circulate, asserting the words: "undergo in strategies guy that thou artwork airborne dirt and dust and unto airborne dirt and dust thou shalt return."

Answer 5

Crystal pretty much answered this but what she left out is that the ashes are from burned palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday.

Answer 6

Totally agree with crystal.

Answer 7

I agree with Crystal.

Answer 8

becuse if ur a catholic u get blessed with ashes

Answer 9

Something the Catholic church made up, to get you to go to church on a Wednesday, and give them more money!
Crystal is wrong, it's not the Christain, Christain don't have it. It's the Catholic!!!

Answer 10

because it always occurs on a wednesday