Some Christians who celebrate Ash Wednesday may have faced a dilemma yesterday.
It was also Valentine’s Day — a day of flowers and chocolates and going out for dinner.
But, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent — a time of reflection, penance and fasting.
Lent is the 40 days (not counting Sundays) leading up to Easter. Forty is significant because it refers back to the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert before he began his ministry of teaching.
On Ash Wednesday, Catholics and some other Christian denominations receive ashes in the shape of a cross on their foreheads. The ashes come from the burning of palms used during the previous year’s Palm Sunday Mass.
As the priest or lay minister applies the ashes, they will say, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
Easter falls on March 31 this year, marking the day Jesus is said to have risen from the dead.
