Celebrating Ash Wednesday.
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. They are 40 fasting days before Easter.
According to the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus Christ spent 40 days fasting in the desert, where he endured temptation by Satan. Lent originated as a mirroring of this, fasting 40 days as preparation for Easter. Every Sunday was seen as a commemoration of the Sunday of Christ’s resurrection and so as a feast day on which fasting was inappropriate. Accordingly, Christians fasted from Monday to Saturday (6 days) during 6 weeks and from Wednesday to Saturday (4 days) in the preceding week, thus making up the number of 40 days.
Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of blessing ashes made from palm branches blessed on the previous year’s Palm Sunday, and placing them on the heads of participants to the accompaniment of the words “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” or “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”.
Some biblical verses:
“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” – Job 42:5-6
“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” – Genesis 3:9
Ben Sirach 34:25-26
He that washes himself after the touching of a dead body, if he touch it again, what is the point of his washing? So is it with a man that fasts for his sins, and goes again, and does the same: who will hear his prayer? or what does his humbling profit him?
Jewish Sages:
The ashes are supposed to signify our need to repent. The Rabbinic Literature also offers some wisdom on repentance from Jewish sages:
Rabbi Adda b. Ahaba:
One who sins and confesses his sin, but does not repent may be compared to a man holding a dead reptile in his hand, for although he may immerse himself in all the waters of the world his immersion is of no avail unto him; but if he throws it away from his hand then as soon as he immerses himself in forty se’ahs of water, immediately his immersion becomes effective. (Ta’anith 16a)
Our brethren, neither sackcloth nor fasting are effective but only penitence and good deeds, for we find that of the men of Ninevah scripture does not say, And God saw their sackcloth and fasting, but, God saw their works that they turned from their evil way. (b. Ta’anith 16a)
Rabbi Eliezer said:
Repent one day before your death. His disciples asked him, Does then one know on what day he will die? Then all the more reason to repent today, he replied, lest he die tomorrow and thus his whole life is spent in repentance. (b. Shabbath 153a).
