What is Ash Wednesday? Its true meaning

The holy day on Ash Wednesday takes its name from the ritual of placing the ashes on the forehead of the faithful and reciting a vow of repentance

Every year Christians celebrate Ash Wednesday, a day of remorse and repentance nestled between the excesses of Shrove Tuesday and the disciplined fast of Lent.

Holy day takes its name from the ritual of placing the ashes on the forehead of the worshipers and of reciting a vow of repentance.

Here is the meaning behind the celebration, when it is happening in 2020 and why the faithful are marked with ash.

What is Ash Wednesday?
Ash Wednesday always falls on the day after Shrove Tuesday, or pancake day - which is always celebrated 47 days before Easter Sunday - making it the date of February 25 this year.

Traditionally, the clergy burns the palm from the Palm Sunday service of the previous year to create the ash of the same name for the church ceremony.

The feast marks the beginning of Lent, the Christian observance of the biblical history of the retreat of Jesus Christ in the desert for 40 days.

For this reason, Ash Wednesday is traditionally a day of fasting, abstinence and repentance, with many Christians refraining from anything but bread and water until sunset.

Ashes have a biblical meaning as a means of expressing pain, both in the sense of mourning and in expressing pain for sins and faults.

From the earliest times, Christians have therefore used them as an external sign of repentance, with their use around the beginning of Lent established since the early Middle Ages.

The gesture is accompanied by the words "Repent and believe in the Gospel" or "Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return", phrases designed to remind worshipers of their mortality and the need to repent.

Lent, an abbreviated form of the old English word Lent which means "spring season", lasts 40 days of fasting (Sundays are generally excluded during the period) before culminating in Easter week.

Depending on the denomination, the end date falls on Holy Thursday (April 9), the day before Good Friday or Holy Saturday (April 11) on the eve of Easter Sunday.

Its basis in the sacrifices made by Jesus means that Lent is traditionally a period of abstinence, with many non-Christians continuing to enter the spirit of the season by giving up special treatment.

During all this time, those who mark Lent will fast or give up certain luxuries, while others may go to church more often or say an extra prayer every day.

With the grim prospect of 40 days of looming discipline, it was perhaps inevitable that Shrove Tuesday would become an occasion to gorge yourself and cram as much sweetness as possible.

In French, the date became known as "Mardi Gras", or "Shrove Tuesday" for this reason, and the label has also been adopted in other countries, particularly in the United States.

Other traditions developed around Shrove Tuesday beyond over-consumption, such as unruly village-level football games in the UK dating back to the 17th century.

While changes to XNUMXth-century law have made them less common, games like Ashbourne's Royal Shrovetide Football continue to cause mud, violence and general chaos every year.