Ash Wednesday

This story and Ash Wednesday reminded me of death and the first time I touched a corpse.

So on Ash Wednesday, we celebrate a ceremony to remind ourselves of our being as dust.

Emegwa gave the advice during a homily on Ash Wednesday to mark the beginning of the Lenten season in the Christendom calendar.

The Ash Wednesday liturgy is one of the most solemn, popular and poignant for all Catholics.

"Ash Wednesday, as it opens the season of Lent, is a reminder for us to have a change of heart, Placing ash from the burned palm leaves reminds us who and what we are and where we are heading.

Mardi Gras technically starts on January 6, as it represents the period between the end of Christmas (Epiphany) and the Ash Wednesday, when Lent starts.

14 when we had that rare coincidence of celebrating Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Lenten Season for us Catholics, and Valentine's Day, a festive occasion for all lovers.

But there are 46 days between Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar and Easter Sunday.

Ash Wednesday which marked the beginning of the period of Lent began with Christians across Pakistan fasting the other day.

It is a symbolic penance preceding the big holiday, the SITA newswire wrote on that day.In the Roman Catholic Church, the preparations start on Ash Wednesday, a moveable feast like Easter itself, falling on February 14 in 2018, the Wednesday in the seventh week before the Easter.

Traditionally most carnivals last up to Ash Wednesday with each town reveling in their own unique traditions.

That's the question many Christians will face on Wednesday, when Valentine's Day and the Ash Wednesday holiday marking the start of Lent fall on the same day for the first time since World War Two.

True Carnival professionals don't hold back -- they'll take a week off until Ash Wednesday to party extensively before Lent starts.

This year the day of hearts and love coincides with the opening of the Lenten season, Ash Wednesday. For Catholics, it is the beginning of a period of fasting and prayer.

THE eagle-eyed among your readers may have spotted that this year Ash Wednesday falls on the same day as Valentine's Day - the first time since 1945.