Ash Wednesday?

Question

Why do they use "Ash," on the foreheads on Ash Wednesday?
What does Ash signify-Thanks

Answer 1

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. It is celebrated by Liturgical churches (Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, United Methodist, Presbyterian USA, and United Church of Christ). It is 40 days, but it doesn't include Sundays because those are celebration days. Sunday is a day of feasting, while Lent is a time of fasting. It prepares someone for the season of Easter. Lent is a time of repentance, fasting and preparation for the coming of Easter. It is a time of self-examination and reflection. In the early church, Lent was a time to prepare new converts for baptism. Today, Christians focus on their relationship with God, often choosing to give up something or volunteering and giving of themselves for others. The forty days represents the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, enduring the temptation of Satan.

The ashes are given to each person in the sign of the cross on their forhead. They are a two fold reminder. We are human. We are mortal. From dust we came and dust we shall return. Also, ashes were used in the bible as a symbol that someone was in deep sorrow over their own sins. It is an outward symbol of an inward repentance of sins.

Answer 2

Ash signifies the dust from which we were supposed to have been made. Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust. What we were, we shall become. This signifies the body, rather than the soul. It is a means of identifying with our mortality.

Answer 3

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust. The ashes are from the Palm branches of the previous Easter. A reminder of our mortality.

Answer 4

the day ahead of this...it quite is unusual because of the fact ash Wednesday replaced into this previous Wednesday no longer the day ahead of this. anyhow all it in fact is, is whilst the arms from final years palm Sunday are burned and the priest will smear the ashes on our brow in the type of a bypass symbolizing us beginning over...or increasing from the ashes. it extremely is kinda like a sparkling beginning up and we try to do some thing valuable for lent as a devotion to Christ. it is likewise the 1st day of lent the place we keep in mind Jesus strolling for the period of the wasteland for forty days/nights. i'm catholic and went to catholic colleges all my existence so I quite have had to wade with the aid of countless ash Wednesdays so with a bit of luck this facilitates and my time wasn't wasted too plenty there.

Answer 5

Ash Wednesday is the start of the penitential season of Lent, and ashes signify penance:

"Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not: Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." -- Matthew 11:20-21

Answer 6

I just recently researched this. Here's what I found:

http://www.theholidayspot.com/ash_wednesday/origin.htm

(some highlights....)
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.

Originally the use of ashes to betoken penance was a matter of private devotion. Later it became part of the official rite for reconciling public penitents. In this context, ashes on the penitent served as a motive for fellow Christians to pray for the returning sinner and to feel sympathy for him. Still later, the use of ashes passed into its present rite of beginning the penitential season of Lent on Ash Wednesday.

AND from http://en.bibleinfo.com/questions/question.html?id=720


Ash Wednesday: Is it in the Bible?

No, it is not. Ash Wednesday is actually of pagan origin and was admitted into the church beliefs of the Catholic Church a few hundred years after Christ. This was the era when Constantine was attempting to weld pagans and Christians into a unit within the Roman kingdom.

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. Roman Catholic churches of the Latin Rite use this service to prepare themselves for the passion and resurrection of Christ through self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting, and self-denial. Ashes from the burned palms of the preceding year's Palm Sunday are blessed. With these ashes, the priest marks a cross on the foreheads of those who come forward and kneel, saying, "Remember, man, that dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." (Genesis 3:19 KJV) From Biblical times, sprinkling oneself with ashes has been a mark of sorrow for sin. Those who honor Ash Wednesday add to this meaning of penance a second point; the need to prepare for a holy death. The churches of the Anglican Communion, as well as some other Protestant churches observe this day. Eastern Rite churches do not. Their Lent begins on the preceding Monday.

Answer 7

The 7th Wednesday before Easter; the first day of Lent; the day following Mardi Gras ('fat Tuesday'); a day of fasting and repentance

Answer 8

Not being Catholic, I can't be sure. I always assumed it was a way of showing sorrow for the suffering Christ had to do on the cross.

The best part is the Resurrection, three days later. We can all rejoice over that.

Answer 9

try these sites

www.catholicism.about.com
www.fisheaters.com