Good Question: Why Ashes On Ash Wednesday?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, a day when millions of Christians all over the world head to church and leave with a cross of ashes on their foreheads. It signifies the first day of Lent - a time of prayer, penance and sacrifice before Easter.
So, why ashes on Ash Wednesday? Good Question.
"This goes back to the Hebrew Bible," says Johan van Parys, director of Liturgy and the Sacred Arts at the Basilica of St. Mary. "There was a custom whenever somebody did penance was to dress in sackcloth and throw ashes on their head."
Ashes were used to express penance. Often, the blessed ashes are accompanied by the words, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
Van Parys points out not only are the ashes used to start Lent, but Ash Wednesday is also a day of fasting and abstinence. It doesn't just apply to Catholics, but to many other Christians groups worldwide.
"Marking ourselves with a cross at the beginning of Lent is saying that during this time of repentance, we want to live more and more as Jesus has asked us to live, following his example of sacrifice," says van Parys.
The ashes are made of the palm branches used during the Palm Sunday services of the previous year. They are burned and the ash is mixed with a little oil to make it stick.