"Easter Readings. Ash Wednesday''

ASH WEDNESDAY

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent.

This was the day when people put on  dark – coloured clothes which they continued to wear until Easter Day. It was a sign of mourning for the death of Jesus. Repentant sinners donned coarse sackcloth and prickly hair-shirts. They walked about in bare feet, showing that  they wanted to reform.

People found time to go to church on Ash Wednesday and during the service their foreheads were marked with ashes in the sign of the cross, in memory of Jesus. Small crosses made from strands of palm fronds and kept almost a year from a previous Palm Sunday were burned to make the ashes which are an old symbol of grief and mourning. Some Christian churches still follow this custom.