Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
4 Things to Know About Ash Wednesday
The-Conversation
By The Conversation
Published 6 years ago on
March 6, 2019

Share

For Christians, the death and resurrection of Jesus is a pivotal event commemorated each year during a season of preparation called Lent and a season of celebration called Easter.

Opinion

William Johnson

The day that begins the Lenten season is called Ash Wednesday. Here are four things to know about it.

1. Origin of the Tradition of Using Ashes

On Ash Wednesday, many Christians have ashes put on their forehead – a practice that has been going on for about a thousand years.

In the earliest Christian centuries – from A.D. 200 to 500 – those guilty of serious sins such as murder, adultery or apostasy, a public renunciation of one’s faith, were excluded for a time from the Eucharist, a sacred ceremony celebrating communion with Jesus and with one another.

In the earliest Christian centuries – from A.D. 200 to 500 – those guilty of serious sins such as murder, adultery or apostasy, a public renunciation of one’s faith, were excluded for a time from the Eucharist, a sacred ceremony celebrating communion with Jesus and with one another.

During that time they did acts of penance, like extra praying and fasting, and lying “in sackcloth and ashes,” as an outward action expressing interior sorrow and repentance.

The customary time to welcome them back to the Eucharist was at the end of Lent, during Holy Week.

But Christians believe that all people are sinners, each in his or her own way. So as centuries went on, the church’s public prayer at the beginning of Lent added a phrase, “Let us change our garments to sackcloth and ashes,” as a way to call the whole community, not just the most serious sinners, to repentance.

Around the 10th century, the practice arose of acting out those words about ashes by actually marking the foreheads of those taking part in the ritual. The practice caught on and spread, and in 1091 Pope Urban II decreed that “on Ash Wednesday everyone, clergy and laity, men and women, will receive ashes.” It’s been going on ever since.

2. Words Used When Applying Ashes

A 12th-century missal, a ritual book with instructions on how to celebrate the Eucharist, indicates the words used when putting ashes on the forehead were: “Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” The phrase echoes God’s words of reproach after Adam, according to the narrative in the Bible, disobeyed God’s command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden.

This phrase was the only one used on Ash Wednesday until the liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. At that time a second phrase came into use, also biblical but from the New Testament: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” These were Jesus’s words at the beginning of his public ministry, that is, when he began teaching and healing among the people.

Each phrase in its own way serves the purpose of calling the faithful to live their Christian lives more deeply. The words from Genesis remind Christians that life is short and death imminent, urging focus on what is essential. The words of Jesus are a direct call to follow him by turning away from sin and doing what he says.

3. Two Traditions for the Day Before

Two quite different traditions developed for the day leading up to Ash Wednesday.

In either case, on the next day, Ash Wednesday, Christians dive right into Lenten practice by both eating less food overall and avoiding some foods altogether.

One might be called a tradition of indulgence. Christians would eat more than usual, either as a final binge before a season of fasting or to empty the house of foods typically given up during Lent. Those foods were chiefly meat, but depending on culture and custom, also milk and eggs and even sweets and other forms of dessert food. This tradition gave rise to the name “Mardi Gras,” or Fat Tuesday.

The other tradition was more sober: namely, the practice of confessing one’s sins to a priest and receiving a penance appropriate for those sins, a penance that would be carried out during Lent. This tradition gave rise to the name “Shrove Tuesday,” from the verb “to shrive,” meaning to hear a confession and impose a penance.

In either case, on the next day, Ash Wednesday, Christians dive right into Lenten practice by both eating less food overall and avoiding some foods altogether.

4. Ash Wednesday Has Inspired Poetry

In 1930s England, when Christianity was losing ground among the intelligentia, T.S. Eliot’s poem “Ash Wednesday” reaffirmed traditional Christian faith and worship. In one section of the poem, Eliot wrote about the enduring power of God’s “silent Word” in the world:

  If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
  If the unheard, unspoken
  Word is unspoken, unheard;
  Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
  The Word without a word, the Word within
  The world and for the world;
  And the light shone in darkness and
  Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
  About the centre of the silent Word. 

Ellen Garmann, Associate Director of Campus Ministry for Liturgy at University of Dayton, contributed to this piece.The Conversation

About the Author

William Johnston, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Dayton

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Clovis Memorial Run Brings the Community Together, Supports Senior Programs

DON'T MISS

Attorney Error Lowers Fees in Fresno Measure P Case

DON'T MISS

Trump Gives Commencement Address at West Point, Stressing a New Era

DON'T MISS

9 of a Doctor’s 10 Children Are Killed in Israel’s Latest Strikes in Gaza

DON'T MISS

Daisy Can’t See or Hear, but She Knows How to Love

DON'T MISS

How to Travel Without a Phone

DON'T MISS

Chukchansi Casino Hosts Job Fair to Fill 80 Food and Beverage Positions

DON'T MISS

California’s High Living Costs and Rampant Poverty Sharpen Its Economic Divide

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Man Killed in Head-On Collision Identified

DON'T MISS

California Allocates $56 Million to Combat Youth Homelessness

UP NEXT

Attorney Error Lowers Fees in Fresno Measure P Case

UP NEXT

Trump Gives Commencement Address at West Point, Stressing a New Era

UP NEXT

9 of a Doctor’s 10 Children Are Killed in Israel’s Latest Strikes in Gaza

UP NEXT

Daisy Can’t See or Hear, but She Knows How to Love

UP NEXT

How to Travel Without a Phone

UP NEXT

Chukchansi Casino Hosts Job Fair to Fill 80 Food and Beverage Positions

UP NEXT

California’s High Living Costs and Rampant Poverty Sharpen Its Economic Divide

UP NEXT

Fresno County Man Killed in Head-On Collision Identified

UP NEXT

California Allocates $56 Million to Combat Youth Homelessness

UP NEXT

Let the Hunt for Fresno County Fruit Trail Delights Begin!

9 of a Doctor’s 10 Children Are Killed in Israel’s Latest Strikes in Gaza

1 day ago

Daisy Can’t See or Hear, but She Knows How to Love

2 days ago

How to Travel Without a Phone

2 days ago

Chukchansi Casino Hosts Job Fair to Fill 80 Food and Beverage Positions

2 days ago

California’s High Living Costs and Rampant Poverty Sharpen Its Economic Divide

2 days ago

Fresno County Man Killed in Head-On Collision Identified

2 days ago

California Allocates $56 Million to Combat Youth Homelessness

2 days ago

Let the Hunt for Fresno County Fruit Trail Delights Begin!

2 days ago

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect in Southwest Shooting Through Valley Crime Stoppers’ Tip

2 days ago

18 Injured in Knife Attack in Hamburg, Report Says

2 days ago

Clovis Memorial Run Brings the Community Together, Supports Senior Programs

The annual Clovis Memorial Run brought runners and walkers to the new Clovis Senior Activity Center on May 24, featuring multiple races that...

1 day ago

1 day ago

Clovis Memorial Run Brings the Community Together, Supports Senior Programs

1 day ago

Attorney Error Lowers Fees in Fresno Measure P Case

1 day ago

Trump Gives Commencement Address at West Point, Stressing a New Era

1 day ago

9 of a Doctor’s 10 Children Are Killed in Israel’s Latest Strikes in Gaza

Blind and deaf, Daisy is a gentle senior pup who has blossomed in foster care and is now searching for a loving home. (Mell's Mutts)
2 days ago

Daisy Can’t See or Hear, but She Knows How to Love

2 days ago

How to Travel Without a Phone

2 days ago

Chukchansi Casino Hosts Job Fair to Fill 80 Food and Beverage Positions

California Wealth and Poverty
2 days ago

California’s High Living Costs and Rampant Poverty Sharpen Its Economic Divide

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend