ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE OF ASH WEDNESDAY
Ash Wednesday is the name given to the first day of the season of Lent, in which the Priest applies ashes to the foreheads of Christians to signify an inner repentance. But what is the origin and significance of this Christian holy day? The practice of using ASHES in the Ash wednesday ceremony derives itself from Old Testament liturgy signifying remorse, mourning and repentance supplemrnted with prayer and fasting. There are numerous accounts of individuals from the Bible using sackcloth ( a very rough material typically worn as a sign of mourning and penitence ) and ashes during times of lamentation and repentance. For instance, in the book of Esther? Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes when he heard of the decree of Ahasuerus ( or Xerxes, 485-464 B.C) of Persia to kill all of the Jewish peope in the Persian Empire (Esther 4:1). Job ( whose story was written between th...