Ash Wednesday is a solemn reminder of human mortality and the need for reconciliation with God and marks the beginning of the penitential Lenten season. It is commonly observed with ashes and fasting. But how did this tradition come about ?
There is no mention of Ash Wednesday in the Bible. But there is a custom of donning ashes as a sign of penitence that predates Jesus. In the Old Testament, Job repents “in dust and ashes” and there are other associations of ashes and repentance in Esther, Samuel, Isaiah and Jeremiah. By the 10th century, the monk, Aelfric started the practice, which dates to the eighth century, to the period before Easter, writing, “Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent our sins during the Lenten fast.” By the 11th century, the practice was widespread throughout the Church — until Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer, threw the practice out in the 16th century because it was not Biblically based. There’s no Lent in the Bible, either, though many Christians see it as an imitation of the 40 days Jesus spent fasting and battling with Satan in the desert.
Read more