Ash Wednesday

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Ash Wednesday

First day of Lent, the period of fasting in the Christian calendar leading up to Easter. Christians used to cover their heads with ashes to show repentance, a custom continued today by some Christians, including Roman Catholics, who mark their foreheads with a cross in ash, as a sign of penitence (sorrow for sins).

Traditionally, the ashes are made from the palm leaves of the previous year's Palm Sunday service (commemorating Jesus' entry into Jerusalem).

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1584 Eliot, T S fasting Hawke, Ethan Lent philosophy Shrove Tuesday			That's my thinking; and I've been clerk o' this parish forty year, and I know, when the parson and me does the cussing of a Ash Wednesday, there's no cussing o' folks as have a mind to be cured without a doctor, let Kimble say what he will. Silas Marner by Eliot, George View in context			ascariasis Ascension Ascension Day Ascension, L' asceticism Asch, Moses Asch, Sholem Aschaffenburg Ascher ASCII ASCII art Asclepiades Asclepius Ascoli Ascoli Piceno Ascomycetes ascorbic acid Ascott ASEAN Aselli, Gasparo asepsis asexual reproduction Asgard ash Ash Shariqah Ash Wednesday Ash, Roy L Ashanti Ashanti Wars Ashbee, Charles Robert Ashbery, John Lawrence Ashbourne Ashbridge, Elizabeth Ashburner, Michael Ashburton Ashburton, Alexander, 1st Baron Ashburton Ashby, Jeffrey Shears Ashby, Margery Irene Ashcan School Ashcroft, John Ashcroft, Peggy Ashdod Ashdown Ashdown Forest Ashdown House Ashdown, Paddy Ashe, Arthur Asheboro Asheim, Lester Eugene ashen light Asher, Jane			Ash Made Our Eyes Ash Maple Ash Meadows National Wildlife Preserve Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge Ash nazg ash pan ash pans ash pit ash pit door ash plain Ash Removal ash rock Ash Shamaliyah Ash Shariqah Ash Shariqah Ash Shâriqah Ash Shâriqah ash shower Ash tray ash tree ash tree ash tree ash tree Ash trees Ash trees Ash trees Ash trees ash viscosity Ash Water Treatment Plant Ash Wednesday Ash'ari Ash'ari, Abu al-Hasan al- Ash'ariyyah Ash, Roy L Ash, Roy L. ash-bin ash-blonde Ash-can School Ash-can School Ash-can School Ash-colored ash-coloured Ash-fire ash-flow tuff Ash-Free Dry Weight Ash-furnace ash-gray ash-grey Ash-Holt ash-key ash-leaf maple ash-leaved maple Ash-leaved walnut ash-pan Ash-throated Flycatcher Ash-tree Ash-tree

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