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On February 17, you may notice a few individuals going about their day with black, cross-shaped markings on their foreheads. This signifies Ash Wednesday, the day when Christian churches worldwide kick off Lent by marking each worshiper with an ashen cross. Given the millions of Christians participating, the amount of ashes quickly adds up.
So, where do churches acquire them? As Reader's Digest explains, the source lies in another Christian tradition: Palm Sunday. Each year, churches hold a special Mass on the Sunday preceding Easter to honor the day Jesus entered Jerusalem before his crucifixion. In the Bible, a crowd of worshippers greeted him by waving palm branches as he rode into the city on a donkey—thus, on Palm Sunday, churches distribute palm fronds to their congregants. (The palms, according to TIME, are sourced from tropical or subtropical regions.)
While some individuals twist their dried palm fronds into cross shapes and take them home, most remain at the church, where they are later burned. The ashes from this fire are collected and reserved for use on Ash Wednesday the following year.
Unlike the tradition of distributing palm fronds, the ritual of blessing churchgoers with ashes isn't directly derived from the Bible. Rather, it's a symbolic gesture meant to remind Christians of their own impermanence. When a member of the clergy marks one's forehead with ashes, they often say, 'Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,' which was God's message to Adam when He expelled him from the Garden of Eden.
To learn more about the significance and history of Ash Wednesday, explore these facts.
