It’s Ash Wednesday Again!

India really is a fabulous country not so much in terms of cleanliness and sincerity but to the lover of art and culture, it is a haven. Every Indian knows that India is an amalgam of cultures, traditions, religions and the like but not every Indian is open to this sort of diversity. This is unfortunate but it doesn’t take away much from the splendor of the reality. But what has any of this got to do with Ash Wednesday? Give me a moment and I will explain.

To make Ash Wednesday understandable to the Indian mind I will offer illustrations from the Indian ethos. The Muslims have a month long period of preparation for the great feast of Eid. During this period of ‘Ramadan’, they are not allowed to touch any food or drink in the daylight hours. The purpose of this fasting is a mental and spiritual preparation for Eid. This is specifically a period of cleansing and introspective reflection. The Hindus have a month of ‘Shravan’ in their calendar. This is a holy month of prayer and fasting. Spiritual activities like making offerings to god, pujas, fasting on particular days and so on are considered to be auspicious and highly rewarding. Ash Wednesday marks the start of a similar period of preparation for Catholics that is characterized by fasting, almsgiving and prayer.

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 with the accompaniment of the words "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" or "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return". The placing of ashes on the forehead in modern times may seem foolish but it is not without significance. Firstly, we must remember that Christianity has its roots in the Jewish faith and has adopted some Judaic cultural symbols. For the Jews, ashes signify repentance and mourning, besides serving as a reminder of the human condition: we are from dust and we shall go back to it (Gen 3:19).

When a person put ashes on his/her body it was a sign that the person considered himself/herself to be humiliated and defiled. In 2 Samuel 3:12 we read about Tamar renting her garments and covering her head in ashes because of what her brother, Amnon did to her. Ashes were also a sign of being sorry and asking pardon from God. The people of Israel are encouraged by prophet Jeremiah to put on sackcloth and roll in ashes in preparation for the day of destruction (Jer 6:26). The Jews mourned in sackcloth and ashes upon hearing the edict of king Xerxes to exterminate every last one of them (Esther 3). In the Old Testament we find instances of persons who covered themselves in ashes as a sign of repentance. We may have heard of the people of Nineveh who engaged in a fast, putting on sackcloth and sitting in ashes, after the message of the Lord was brought to them by prophet Jonah (Jonah 3).

Ash Wednesday has no fixed day as it is calculated vis-à-vis Easter Sunday which itself varies from year to year. Easter is the only feast calculated by the lunar calendar and hence its date of observance is ambiguous. The date for Easter is determined as the Sunday following the full moon of the spring equinox, thus it usually comes anywhere between the end of March and the end of April.

Ash Wednesday is prescribed as a day of fasting and abstinence. It is mandatory for all those above the age of 18 with the exception of those who are ill or those who cannot do so for grave reasons. The elderly are also exempt from fasting however they are called to engage in a fasting of spirit. Fasting from food needs to be accompanied by prayer for only then is fasting truly observed. Fasting in the Christian tradition isn’t as strict as it is in the Islamic or Hindu traditions but that doesn’t and shouldn’t reduce its efficacy. The biblical foundation for this practice of fasting is the 40 days of Jesus in the desert. Lent is a mirroring of this and serves as a preparation for Easter.

Ashes are ceremonially placed on the heads of Christians on Ash Wednesday, either by being sprinkled over their heads or, more often by being marked on their foreheads as a visible cross. The marking or sprinkling with ashes is accompanied either by the words “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15) or “You are dust and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19). The ashes are a sign of mourning and repentance as I have elaborated earlier while the phrase uttered by the priest serves to remind the believer of ‘the reason for the season’. Lent is a time to be sorry for our sins and for the faults that we have committed, intentionally and unintentionally. Our repentance must lead us to a greater appreciation and understanding of the love of God. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but should have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). God isn’t pleased with our complacency and sinfulness and the Church invites its faithful in this season of Lent to return back to God and to beg pardon for their faults and failings.

Ash Wednesday thus marks the beginning of a very special period in the Church’s liturgical year. The outward sign of putting ash on one’s forehead succinctly reflects the inner desire for conversion. The symbolism is strong and the message is clear. The call to conversion and repentance is ringing in the air. The ashes are ready and so is the season. All that remains is for the protagonist, we, to push things into motion.