Occurring 46 days before Easter, it is a moveable
fast that can fall as early as February 4 and as late as March
10. According to the canonical
gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke; Jesus spent 40
days fasting in the desert, where he endured
temptation by Satan. Ash
Wednesday marks the beginning of this 40-day liturgical period of prayer and
fasting or abstinence. Of the 46 days until Easter, six are Sundays. As the Christian
Sabbath, Sundays are not included in the fasting period and are instead
"feast" days during Lent. Ash Wednesday derives its name from the
practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a celebration and reminder
of human mortality, and as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. The
ashes used are typically gathered from the burning of the palms from the
previous year's Palm
Sunday. Although generally seen as a Catholic practice,
as it was mostly abandoned by Protestants except for Anglicans after the
Protestant
Reformation, it has become increasingly common in much of Christianity, now being
observed by many Lutherans and Methodists in
addition to Catholics and Anglicans. One tradition is to keep palm
fronds from the previous year's Palm
Sunday to be burned to produce the ashes. The liturgical
imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday is a sacramental, not a sacrament, and in
the Catholic understanding of the term the ashes themselves are also a
sacramental. The ashes are blessed according to various rites proper to each
liturgical tradition, sometimes involving the use of Holy Water. In some
churches, they are mixed with a small amount of water or olive
oil, which
serve as a fixative. In most liturgies for Ash Wednesday, the Penitential
psalms are read; Psalm 51 (LXX Psalm 50)
is especially associated with this day.The
service also often includes a corporate confession rite.
In some of the lowchurch traditions, other practices are sometimes added or
substituted, as other ways of symbolizing the confession and penitence of the
day. For example, in one common variation, small cards are distributed to the
congregation on which people are invited to write a sin they wish to confess.
These small cards are brought forth to the altar table where
they are burned. In the Catholic Church, ashes, being sacramental, may be given
to anyone who wishes to receive them, as opposed to Catholic sacraments, which
are generally reserved for church members, except in cases of grave necessity.
Similarly, in other Christian
denominations ashes may be received by all who profess the Christian
faith and are baptized. In the Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday is observed by fasting, abstinence from
meat, and repentance—a day of
contemplating one's transgressions. The Anglican Book
of Common Prayer also designates Ash Wednesday as a day of fasting. In the
medieval period, Ash Wednesday was the required annual day of penitential
confession occurring after fasting and the remittance of the tithe. In other
Christian
denominations these practices are optional, with the main focus being on repentance. On Ash
Wednesday and Good
Friday, Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 (whose health
enables them to do so) are permitted to consume only one full meal, which may
be supplemented by two smaller meals, which together should not equal the full
meal. Some Catholics will go beyond the minimum obligations demanded by the
Church and undertake a complete fast or a bread and water fast. Ash Wednesday
and Good Friday are also days of abstinence from meat (mammals and fowl), as
are all Fridays during Lent. Some
Catholics continue fasting throughout Lent, as was the Church's traditional
requirement, concluding only after the celebration of the Easter
Vigil.
As the
first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday comes the day after Shrove
Tuesday or Mardi
Gras (Fat Tuesday), the last day of the Carnival season.
Dutch tradition holds the custom to eat salted herring on Ash Wednesday to
conclude the carnival
in the Netherlands.
Ashes were used
in ancient times to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the penitent's way of
expressing sorrow for sins and faults. An ancient example of one expressing
one's penitence is found in Job 42:3–6.
Job says to God: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now
mine eye seeth thee. The other eye wandereth of its own accord. Wherefore I
abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (vv. 5–6, KJV) The prophet Jeremiah, for example, calls for repentance
this way: "O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the
ashes" (Jer 6:26). The prophet Daniel recounted
pleading to God this way: "I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest
prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes" (Daniel 9:3). Just prior to the New Testament period, the rebels
fighting for Jewish independence, the Maccabees, prepared for battle using ashes: "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).
Other examples are found in several other books of the Bible including, Numbers 19:9,
19:17,
Jonah 3:6,
Matthew 11:21,
and Luke 10:13,
and Hebrews 9:13.
Ezekiel 9
also speaks of a linen-clad messenger marking the forehead of the city
inhabitants that have sorrow over the sins of the people. All those without the
mark are destroyed. It marks the start of a 43-day period which is an allusion
to the separation of Jesus in the desert too fast and pray. During this time he was tempted. Matthew 4:1–11, Mark 1:12–13, and Luke 4:1-13. While not specifically instituted in the Bible text, the
40-day period of repentance is also analogous to the 40 days during which Moses repented and fasted in response to the making of the Golden calf. (Jews today follow a 40-day period of repenting in
preparation for and during the High Holy Days from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Yom Kippur.) In Victorian England, theatres refrain…
DR. KARL
WALLACE D.D.S
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