What is Ash Wednesday?

Answer 1

+ Ashes in the Bible +

"O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes." (Jeremiah 6:26)

"I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes." (Daniel 9:3)

"When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes." (Jonah 3:6)

"And all the Israelite men, women and children who lived in Jerusalem prostrated themselves in front of the temple building, with ashes strewn on their heads, displaying their sackcloth covering before the Lord." (Judith 4:11; see also 4:15 and 9:1)

"That day they fasted and wore sackcloth; they sprinkled ashes on their heads and tore their clothes." (1 Maccabees 3:47; see also 4:39)

Jesus refers to the use of sackcloth and ashes as signs of repentance: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes." (Matthew 11:21, Luke 10:13)

+ Ash Wednesday +

As the beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday calls us to the conversion journey that marks the season.

As those preparing to join the Church enter the final stage of their preparation for the Easter sacraments, we are all called to walk with them so that we will be prepared to renew our baptismal promises when Easter arrives.

When we receive ashes on our foreheads, we remember:
+ Who we are
+ That we are creatures of the earth
. "Remember that you are dust"
+ That we are mortal beings
. "and to dust you will return"
+ That we are baptized
+ That we are people on a journey of conversion
. "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel"
+ That we are members of the body of Christ
+ That smudge on our foreheads will proclaim that identity to others, too

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and occurs forty-six days before Easter. 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. The symbolism echoes the ancient Near Eastern tradition of throwing ash over one's head signifying repentance before God

Answer 3

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent in which we receive ashes on our forehead as a sign of repentence and a reminder of our mortality and the time to repent is NOW.

Anyone, including non-Catholics can go to a Catholic Church to receive ashes.

Answer 4

As far as I know a Catholic thing. I was raised Presbyterian and we didn't do the ash thing. A Catholic friend of mine at work came back from lunch with ashes on the forehead- still seems odd to me. Each to their own.

Answer 5

Ash wednesday is the first day of lent and we have lent now for 40 days and 40 nights. Today we can't eat meat. We also can't eat meat every friday now until lent is over. I hope I have answered your question!;)

Answer 6

Is it today?
-woops.........

Traditionally, the ashes for the Ash Wednesday service come from burning the palm fronds from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebration. They are made by burning palm fronds which have been saved from the previous year's Palm Sunday, the Sunday before the Easter. They are then blessed by a priest.

Ashes are a biblical symbol of mourning and penance. In Bible times the custom was to fast, wear sackcloth, sit in dust and ashes, and put dust and ashes on one's head.Blessed ashes having been used in God's rituals since the time of Moses (Numbers 19:9-10, 17).

They also symbolize death and so remind us of our mortality. Thus when the priest uses his thumb to sign one of the faithful with the ashes, he says, "Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return,"


Getting self-ashed:
Of course, it is easier to purchase them from a religious supply house. However, if you burn the palm fronds yourself, don’t add any other ingredient—just burn the ashes plain. Add a little oil to the ashes so that they will stick to people’s foreheads.
Don’t overestimate how much you need! It is amazing how far a small amount of ashes will go!
Ash Wednesday marks the onset of the Lent, the 40-day period of fasting and abstinence. It is also known as the 'Day of Ashes'. So called because on that day at church the faithful have their foreheads marked with ashes in the shape of a cross.

The name 'Day of Ashes' comes from "Dies Cinerum" in the Roman Missal and is found in the earliest existing copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary. The concept originated by the Roman Catholics somewhere in the 6th century. Though the exact origin of the day is not clear, the custom of marking the head with ashes on this Day is said to have originated during the papacy of Gregory the Great (590-604).

In the Old Testament ashes were found to have used for two purposes: as a sign of humility
and mortality; and as a sign of sorrow and repentance for sin. The Christian connotation for ashes in the liturgy of Ash Wednesday has also been taken from this Old Testament biblical custom./
Receiving ashes on the head as a reminder of mortality and a sign of sorrow for sin was a practice of the Anglo-Saxon church in the 10th century. It was made universal throughout the Western church at the Synod of Benevento in 1091.
Putting a 'cross' mark on the forehead was in imitation of the spiritual mark or seal that is put on a Christian in baptism. This is when the newly born Christian is delivered from slavery to sin and the devil, and made a slave of righteousness and Christ (Rom. 6:3-18).

Answer 7

that is when they put ashes on the kids foreheads

Answer 8

it means the beginning of Lent

Answer 9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent

Answer 10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday