What is Ash Wednesday?

I remember the first time I ever saw someone out in public with ashes on their forehead on Ash Wednesday. I was around ten years old and at the grocery store with my mom. I remember being so confused—how had dirt gotten on that stranger’s head? And how on earth hadn’t they noticed it? It wasn’t for a couple years that I noticed it again and actually asked my mom about it. I didn’t grow up in a church tradition that observed the church calendar, so to my mom it was just something Catholics did, and she never gave me any more information than that.  

Years later—after getting married—I began attending a small, non-denominational church with my husband. And although this church was technically non-denominational, they were very rooted in ancient church tradition and observed the church calendar. So I was confused when, during our first year there, they announced that they were holding an Ash Wednesday service—because wasn’t that just a thing Catholics did? Since then, however, I have fallen in love with the significance and symbolism of Ash Wednesday. That service—along with the whole season of Lent—is something I look forward to every year.  

What is Ash Wednesday?  

Ash Wednesday is the first day of the season of Lent—the season during which Christians prepare our hearts for the celebration of Easter. What this means is that we spend the forty days of Lent reflecting on the problem of sin and death in our lives and in the world, so that we can better appreciate and rejoice in Jesus’s resurrection, which solves that problem.  

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of that forty day period. It is a somber day that encourages us to sit with our mortality—the fact that we are headed toward death because of our sin. At a typical Ash Wednesday service, a church leader will rub ashes on the foreheads of the attendees and say, “Remember that you are dust; and to dust you will return.” This is a reminder of the fate of death that awaits us all.  

This phrase was actually first spoken by God Himself. As He was announcing the consequences of humanity’s first sin, He says to Adam in Genesis 3:19,  

“You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow 

until you return to the ground, 

since you were taken from it. 

For you are dust, 

and you will return to dust.” 

As Christians all over the world receive ashes on their foreheads, and hear these words spoken over them, they are reminded of the consequences of their sin and their need for a Savior.  

Is there any hope in Ash Wednesday?  

While it might at first sound morbid and bleak, Ash Wednesday is not without hope. We are reminded of our death, but we also know that death is not the end. All of this—dwelling on sin and death, receiving ashes, and observing the season of Lent—is done only because we know Easter is coming. Death has been defeated. Sin does not have the final word.  

When the church leader smears ashes on someone’s forehead, he or she rubs them in the shape of a cross. Therefore, along with the reminder of our mortality is the reminder that God loved us so much that He took on mortal flesh and died on a cross for our sins. Ash Wednesday does require us to reckon with the morbid reality of death, but not without the underlying reminder that death has been defeated on the cross.  

Who can observe Ash Wednesday?  

As I have grown and learned more about church tradition, and especially the church calendar, I learned that what my mom told me as a kid was wrong. Ash Wednesday is not just something Catholics do. You can find Ash Wednesday services at many churches of all denominations around the world. This ancient church tradition is for all who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. We all have sinned; we all are headed toward death; but we are also covered by the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross, and walk in the hope of His resurrection.