Forty six days prior to Easter, the Christian observance of lent begins with Ash Wednesday. During a special worship service, the congregation is blessed with ashes, typically with either a full ashen cross on the forehead, or a simple ash marking on the forehead. The parishioner leaves this blessing intact until sometime after sundown when it may be washed from the skin. The blessing typically comes with a reminder that we all come from ashes, and to ashes we all will return. This action is done as a symbolic repentance before God, with its origins dating back to Near Eastern traditions of flailing ashes over one’s head.
The Roman Catholic Church declares lent a period of fasting, which allows one full meal and two snacks for parishioners between the ages of 18 and 59. Tradition calls for meat abstinence, and of course the fasting lasts until after the Easter Saturday vigil.
The ashes which mark the forehead of the faithful are the burned remains of the previous Palm Sunday’s fronds, which are then mixed with olive oil for consistency. The actual moment when the forehead is marked initiates the beginning of lent for each individual person. There are numerous variances on these practices as you search through the different denominations, but the basic principle is reflected in the same way.
The marking of the forehead has been a known custom since at the very least the papal duration of Gregory the Great which ended in 604. It has been said to have a two fold purpose, one being the ashes were marked for humility and mortality and then also for sorrow and repentance. Marking for repentance was supposed to assist the congregation in praying for the marked, to ultimately feel some pity for him, and offer their support in prayers. Although as the custom spread, entire congregations were becoming marked as they were finding the strength to admit their indiscretions. Soon after, priests just assumed that their congregation had sin within and everyone was marked accordingly.
There is no determining factor as to why Ash Wednesday falls on the day that it does, or why lent begins forty six days before Easter. Most people exclude Sunday in the count and call it the forty days of lent. However, if you count it out on the calendar, it is forty six days between the commencing of lent and its culmination with the Easter Saturday Vigil. The forty sixth day prior to Easter shows no evidence in a historical moment in the life of Christ or a particularly religious event that anyone can discern, it is simply considered the day lent begins.
There is speculation, however, that these forty six days were what the Pope and his trusted advisors considered to be an appropriate amount of time to truly repent and cleanse the soul prior to arriving for worship on the holiest holiday on the Christian calendar. Originally the fasting was accompanied by the wearing of sack cloth and sitting in the ashes and dirt on the ground and covering oneself with the ashes and dirt that was beneath the individual. This was all to express true remorse and true humility for the sins committed and derive an honest effort to commit oneself to a holier path on the eve of Easter.
The custom of repenting with ashes was not an original Christian act, as the earliest Jews often sat on the ground in the rubble of ashes and spread it over themselves in order to express their sorrow for their poor deeds unto the world. They took this repentance seriously and needed no prompting from the religious leaders to do so, as it was a free will type of discipline that allowed the Jews to express their sorrow directly to God.
In the United States, the only churches which participate in the ashing of the forehead are the Roman Catholic Churches and a few Episcopal Churches. Most other churches do not participate in any form. However, some progressive churches may do some form of smudging to indicate humility, but many Christian Churches are beginning to shift their focus to forgiveness and acceptance and away from repentance and what they consider to be a form of “self punishment.”