Ash Wednesday
Wed, Feb 14
|All Day
Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Easter are observed by many Christians throughout the world, including Catholics and Protestants. Ash Wednesday, also known as Day of Ashes, marks the beginning of Lent, a forty-day period (excluding Sundays) of repentance from sin, reflection, and fasting.
Time & Location
Feb 14, 2024, 12:00 AM
All Day
About the event
This six-week period leads up to Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. During Lent, many Christians fast by limiting themselves to one meal or two smaller meals and abstaining from eating meat. This is seen as a commemoration of Jesus Christ’s fasting in the desert for 40 days.
Christians who participate in Lent reflect on their sins and seek forgiveness from God. During church congregations, the priest or pastor will place ashes in the shape of a cross on attendees’ foreheads. The ashes are from burned palm branches from the previous Palm Sunday. (For reference Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter and marks the beginning of the Holy Week.) The ashes on the forehead symbolize death and repentance and are sometimes later washed off to reflect the cleansing of sins.
Lent ends on the Saturday before Easter, the day after Good Friday. For Christians, Good Friday commemorates…