Origin and history of ash wednesday

Ash Wednesday marks the onset of the Lent, the 40-day period of fasting and abstinence. It is also known as the 'Day of Ashes'. So called because on that day at church the faithful have their foreheads marked with ashes in the shape of a cross. The name 'Day of Ashes' comes from "Dies Cinerum" in the Roman Missal and is found in the earliest existing copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary. The concept originated by the Roman Catholics somewhere in the 6th century. Though the exact origin of the day is not clear, the custom of marking the head with ashes on this Day is said to have originated during the papacy of Gregory the Great (590-604). In the Old Testament ashes were found to have used for two purposes: as a sign of humility and mortality; and as a sign of sorrow and repentance for sin. The Christian connotation for ashes in the liturgy of Ash Wednesday has also been taken from this Old Testament biblical custom./ Receiving ashes on the head as a reminder of mortality and a sign of sorrow for sin was a practice of the Anglo-Saxon church in the 10th century. It was made universal throughout the Western church at the Synod of Benevento in 1091. Originally the use of ashes to betoken penance was a matter of private devotion. Later it became part of the official rite for reconciling public penitents. In this context, ashes on the penitent served as a motive for fellow Christians to pray for the returning sinner and to feel sympathy for him. Still later, the use of ashes passed into its present rite of beginning the penitential season of Lent on Ash Wednesday. There can be no doubt that the custom of distributing the ashes to all the faithful arose from a devotional imitation of the practice observed in the case of public penitents. But this devotional usage, the reception of a sacramental which is full of the symbolism of penance (cf. the cor contritum quasi cinis of the "Dies Irae") is of earlier date than was formerly supposed. It is mentioned as of general observance for both clerics and faithful in the Synod of Beneventum, 1091 (Mansi, XX, 739), but nearly a hundred years earlier than this the Anglo-Saxon homilist Ælfric assumes that it applies to all classes of men. Putting a 'cross' mark on the forehead was in imitation of the spiritual mark or seal that is put on a Christian in baptism. This is when the newly born Christian is delivered from slavery to sin and the devil, and made a slave of righteousness and Christ (Rom. 6:3-18). This can also be held as an adoption of the way 'righteousness' are described in the book of Revelation, where we come to know about the servants of God. The reference to the sealing of the servants of God for their protection in Revelation is an allusion to a parallel passage in Ezekiel, where Ezekiel also sees a sealing of the servants of God for their protection: "And the LORD said to him [one of the four cherubim], 'Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark [literally, "a tav"] upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.' And to the others he said in my hearing, 'Pass through the city after him, and smite; your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity; slay old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one upon whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.' So they began with the elders who were before the house." (Ezekiel 9:4-6) Unfortunately, like most modern translations, the one quoted above (the Revised Standard Version, which we have been quoting thus far), is not sufficiently literal. What it actually says is to place a tav on the foreheads of the righteous inhabitants of Jerusalem. Tav is one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and in ancient script it looked like the Greek letter chi, which happens to be two crossed lines (like an "x") and which happens to be the first letter in the word "Christ" in Greek Christos). The Jewish rabbis commented on the connection between tav and chi and this is undoubtedly the mark Revelation has in mind when the servants of God are sealed in it. The early Church Fathers seized on this tav-chi-cross-christos connection and expounded it in their homilies, seeing in Ezekiel a prophetic foreshadowing of the sealing of Christians as servants of Christ. It is also part of the background to the Catholic practice of making the sign of the cross, which in the early centuries (as can be documented from the second century on) was practiced by using one's thumb to furrow one's brow with a small sign of the cross, like Catholics do today at the reading of the Gospel during Mass. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ASH Traditionally, the ashes for the Ash Wednesday service come from burning the palm fronds from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebration. They are made by burning palm fronds which have been saved from the previous year's Palm Sunday, the Sunday before the Easter. They are then blessed by a priest. Ashes are a biblical symbol of mourning and penance. In Bible times the custom was to fast, wear sackcloth, sit in dust and ashes, and put dust and ashes on one's head. Blessed ashes having been used in God's rituals since the time of Moses (Numbers 19:9-10, 17).They also symbolize death and so remind us of our mortality. Thus when the priest uses his thumb to sign one of the faithful with the ashes, he says, "Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return," Getting self-ashed:Of course, it is easier to purchase them from a religious supply house. However, if you burn the palm fronds yourself, don’t add any other ingredient—just burn the ashes plain. Add a little oil to the ashes so that they will stick to people’s foreheads. Don’t overestimate how much you need! It is amazing how far a small amount of ashes will go! ASH POEMS The prayer As the cold gives way to the warmer days Warming up in the morning sunrays I keep waiting with others For the church door to open there with spring breeze brushing the hair Teasing my face with its refreshing fingers The merry season passes over paving way for the penance 'n prayer Comes Lent thru the Ash ending the days of happy bash "Dust to Dust" he would mutter 'Wash me through...O Lord', I utter. ******************************* The penitence A whole day's feast that I had with the musical treats, Out I drag myself up weary of revels, And the night long drumbeats to rev up and rap. As the sun slowly removes its hood wiping up the nightly mood, The Men at church dongs the bell, The big door beneath the spires floats open to unveil. The odor so divine, The smoke so purifying, Hovering over the hallway tires Hallowed with the candles so enlightening. As I bend on my knees to atone for my erring glees, A gentle touch on my forehead lets me know of the ash cross, And the day for which it's made. **************************** Words of Wisdom, Ash wednesday and the christian church The Christian Church has observed the weeks before Easter as a time of penitence and spiritual self-examination. Self examination means looking back at our past deeds analytically. "Eloi, Eloi, lamma sabachtani." ("My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?") -(1st of Psalm1) "Praise the Lord, all you that are his worshippers...He has not scorned or slighted the appeal of the friendliness, nor turned his face away from me; my cry for help did not go unheeded. Take what I owe you, my song of praise before a great assembly." -(Psalm1) St. John wrote: "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves ... If we say we have not sinned we make God a liar". -(1st John 1:8, 10) "Whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Christ ... and edify one another". -(1st Thes. 5:10-11) "Whether you eat or drink or whatever else you do, do it all for the glory of God" -(1st Cor. 10:31). According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church," Prayer is a "vital and personal relationship with the living and true God." -(CCC #2558) Regarding the attitude of prayer, repentance, and humility James said: "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up". -(James 4:10) ********************************************************************************* "A NOTE ON LENT" Lent was derived from the Anglo-Saxon word Lencten, meaning spring. In France the season is called Careme, and in Italy it is Quarestima, both derived from the Latin Quadragesima. Lent in the Western Churches was originally a period of forty days of fasting and penitence, readying the Christian soul for the great feast on the ensuing Easter Sunday. This is held as a period of sober reflection, self-examination, and spiritual redirection. The Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and goes for forty days excluding the Sundays. Because Sundays are always the joyful celebration of the Resurrection. It ends on the Good Friday. However, Lent is a forty two day period in Eastern Churches and begins on the Monday preceding the Easter by forty two days . This makes it clear that they don't have Ash Wednesday. With the Easter being a movable feast, Lent begins in different years on different days in either February or March. But why this Forty Day period? Certainly the number forty has long had a symbolic importance in religion. Moses and Elias spent forty days in the wilderness; the Jews wandered forty years searching for the Promised Land; Jonah gave the city of Nineveh forty days' grace in which to repent. And Jesus retreated into the wilderness and fasted for forty days to prepare for his ministry. It was for Him a time of contemplation, reflection, and preparation. So by observing Lent, most Christians join Jesus on His retreat. The Lenten period of forty days owes its origin to the Latin word Quadragesima, originally signifying forty hours. This referred to forty hours of complete fasting which preceded the Easter celebration in the early Church. The main ceremony was the baptizing of the initiates on Easter Eve, and the fast was a preparation to receive this sacrament. Later, the period from Good Friday until Easter Day was extended to six days, to correspond with the six weeks of training, necessary to instruct the converts who were to be baptized. A strict schedule was adhered to in the teaching of the converts. In Jerusalem near the end of the fourth century, classes were held throughout seven weeks of Lent for three hours each day. With the acceptance of Christianity as the state religion of Rome in the 4th century, its character was endangered by the great influx of new members. To combat the hazard, the Lenten fast and practices of self renunciation were required of all Christians. The less zealous of the converts were thus brought more securely into the Christian fold. Sometimes before the year 330 the duration of Lent had been fixed at forty days in Egypt, to correspond to Christ's forty days in the desert. It was evident quite early that a six-week Lent contained only thirty-six days - since Sunday is never a fast day. Gradually four more days were added to the beginning of Lent became Known as Ash Wednesday. The first evidence of this increase is in the Gelasian Sacramentary of the early eighth century. Tradition: In time the emphasis of the season turned from preparation for baptism to more penitential aspects of penance. The sorrows and sufferings of Christ were shared by the self-denying Christian. Persons guilty of notorious sins spent the time performing public penances. Only at the end of Lent were they publicly reconciled with the Church. During the Middle Ages the sinners were accepted back in an elaborate ceremony. Then penance came to be associated during this period for common people as well. And Lent became the way of penance. It is good for us to undertake acts of penance in sorrow for our sins, our failure to acknowledge and to love God in Himself, in others, in ourselves. The traditional forms of penance, fast and abstinence, are to be observed according to Church law. The habit of more personal forms of penance is certainly to be encouraged. Not only is penance appropriate as an expression of sorrow for sin, but it also helps us to be less attached to the things of this world. Penance helps us to put things in proper perspective. The way of Lent is also the way of good works, the way of loving service of others. In his Lenten message for this year, the Holy Father invites us to be particularly attentive to the needs of the homeless. ============================ ============================ WHY FASTING Today the word ‘fasting’ means a total abstention from all food. In the historic Church, it means a disciplined diet so that your animal appetites become a sort of spiritual snooze alarm. Although no such period of fasting was ascribed in the Bible, fasting and penitence came to be associated with Lent following the way Jesus did. The Lenten tradition of fasting commemorates the forty-day fast of Jesus in the desert after his baptism and before the beginning of his public ministry. Today in the United States, Roman Catholics in the age groups of 21 to 59 are required to fast and abstain only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Abstinence from meat is recommended for the other Fridays of Lent. Voluntary fasts and abstinences are encouraged for the entire season. Earlier, in Catholic Europe, fasting was decreed first by church laws. England enforced it also by its statute law. Meat, eggs and milk were forbidden and any lapse into gluttony could be severely punished. James II issued a proclamation in the London Gazette a year before the Bloodless Revolution of 1688 urging that the people abstain from meat. However, by giving alms to the poor, a license permitting the eating of meat could be acquired in St. Paul's Churchyard. In the days of stricter abstinence the money saved through fasting was to be donated to the poor. The practice, however, fell into abeyance later. Being out of the purview of the Bible the devotion to Lenten food laws waned, especially by the time of the Puritans. Finally, in 1863 England repealed the food laws. And gradually the practice came to be reduced to only two days. The first day and the final day. While the Lenten tradition of fasting has its religious connotation, the practice could also be regarded to be backed by some hygienic prudence. A light eating practice between two session of heavy feast is always helpful to tone up the digestive system. So instead of continuing with the usual practice of gluttony or overindulgence in the food habit, a controlled dieting of low animal protein could always be helpful at least as a preparation for the great feasting session of Easter. ******==================*********======================******