‘…for dust you are and to dust you will return.’ Genesis 3:19
This year, Ash Wednesday is on Wednesday 14 February2024.
Historically, ashes symbolise grief or mourning. In the Old Testament, people would wear sackcloth and ashes to show publicly that they were in mourning, and whole communities would mourn collectively for a set period oftime.
For example, when God was going to destroy the people of Ninevah, they declared a fast (fasting, or voluntarily reducing or eliminating food intake for a specific purpose like devotion or prayer, is also observed by some people during Lent) and ‘put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least’ (Jonah 3:5). God saw a change in their hearts as they genuinely repented. It’s from verses like this that some believe the ‘ash’ part of Ash Wednesday wasinspired.
In the early Church in Rome, they’d also observe times of public penance, where they’d confess their sins and repent for wrongdoing. They’d dress in sackcloth (which was typically worn by those in mourning) and be sprinkled with ashes.
In the same way, the practice of having ash placed upon one’s forehead is seen as a public sign of repentance before God, as well as echoing the ‘shared mourning’ that many communities historically observed. This time of intentional grief and repentance serves as a reminder of the vastness of God’s mercy and grace, given freely to us despite ourfailures.
As a long-standing custom, the ashes used to mark people’s foreheads during an Ash Wednesday service are sometimes made from the palm crosses from last year’s Palm Sunday, used to remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem just a few days before he was crucified. As well as the fact they may have been blessed by a priest, using the palm leaves serves as a reminder that we have not always welcomedJesus.
