Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday can be confusing for all of us, and you might get some questions from your kids. So we thought we’d put together a list of the top four tips to know about Ash Wednesday and why we celebrate it:

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the church season called Lent. Every year, we spend the six weeks before Easter remembering what God has done for us. The story of God’s people reminds us that God is always with us and always looking out for us. By spending time thinking about our history, we prepare our hearts for the glorious celebration of Easter and Jesus’s resurrection.

What is ash? Ash is the stuff left over after something burns. You might remember that Palm Sunday is the day we remember Jesus entering Jerusalem and all the people waved palm branches and shouted “Hosanna in the Highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” We collect all those palms and the night before Ash Wednesday, we burn them and turn them into the ashes you will receive on your forehead. It reminds us of Jesus’s.

When you receive the ashes, the priest will say "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." This reminds us that we are all made of the same stuff and will return to the same stuff. None of us can avoid hard times and God is with us throughout it all.

The ashes also remind us that we are not perfect. The smudge on our foreheads is messy just like we are. When we wash our face on the evening of Ash Wednesday, we remember our baptism where we are washed of our sins by the death of Jesus.