Everything you need to know about Ash Wednesday

Lent 2025 will begin on March 5, starting a time of conversion and spiritual preparation for Easter. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of these 40 days of penance and is one of the most significant liturgical traditions for Catholics.

This year, Pope Francis recalled To the faithful who, with the “penitential sign of the ashes in the head, we begin the annual pilgrimage of the Holy Lent, in faith and hope.”

Next, the data that every Catholic needs to know about this date.

1. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. According to the Roman Missal, “this day blessed and the ash made of olive bouquets or other trees is blessed and imposed.”

2. It is a rite with centuries of history

In the Old Testament, ashes symbolize mourning (Because 6,26), request for help to God (And 9.3) and repentance (Jud 4,11). The Christian tradition of imposing ash dates back to the primitive Church. The Catholic encyclopedia It indicates that, on Holy Thursday, the first Christians covered ash as a sign of public penance. It was not until the eleventh century that the rite of the imposition of the ash on Ash Wednesday was implemented.

Today, other Christian denominations such as Anglicans, Lutherans and Methodists also make this gesture, although with differences in their rites.

3. The imposition of ashes is a gesture that opens to conversion

Ash is a symbol of humility and penance. He Directory on popular piety and liturgy (n. 125) He explains: “typical of the ancient rites with which converted sinners underwent canonical penance, the gesture of covering with ash has the sense of recognizing one’s own fragility and mortality, which needs to be redeemed by the mercy of God.”

“Far from being a purely exterior gesture, the Church has preserved it as a sign of the attitude of the penitent heart that each baptized is called to assume in the Lent itinerary. The faithful should be helped, who come in large numbers to receive ash, to capture the inner meaning that this gesture has, which opens to the conversion and effort of the Easter renewal, ”he adds.

4. Ashes have more than one meaning

The word ash, which comes from Latin “ash “represents the product of combustion of something for fire. This adopted a symbolic sense of death, expiration, but also of humility and penance.

The ash also reminds the Christian for his origin and his end: “God formed man with dust of the earth” (Gen 2,7); “Until you returned to earth, because you were done” (Gen 3,19).

During a general audience, Benedict XVI explained That the gesture of the imposition of ash also represents “a more conscious and intense immersion in the Pascual mystery of Christ, in his death and resurrection, through participation in the Eucharist and in the life of charity, which is born of the Eucharist and finds in it its fulfillment.”

He also assured that it allows the “commitment to follow Jesus, to let us transform by his Pascual mystery, to overcome evil and do good, to make our ‘old man’ died linked to sin and make the ‘new man’ transformed by the grace of God”.

5. The ashes are achieved from the last Sunday of Ramos

The Roman Missal indicates that the ashes are obtained from the burning of the Palm Palms of the previous year. In some countries, they are mixed with blessed water or chrism oil to form an aromatized paste with incense.

6. The imposition of ash has a special rite during the Mass

The rite takes place at the end of the homily. According to him Misal Romanothe priest, standing and with the hands together, says: “Dear brothers, let’s humbly ask God the Father to bless this ash that, as a sign of penance, we will impose on our head.”

Then, the priest or minister sprinkles the ash with holy water, without saying anything. Next, impose ash on all those present approaching with him, and says to each one: “Become and believe in the Gospel (Mc 1, 15) ”O“ Remember that you are dust and to dust you have to return (cf. Gn 3, 19)”.

According to the Roman Missal, there is no mandatory response from the faithful. It is recommended to withdraw in silence, meditating the meaning of the gesture.

7. Ash can also be imposed without the need for Mass

In the absence of a priest, laity can impose ash in a rite without mass, preferably preceded by a liturgy of the word. Only a priest or deacon can bless it previously.

8. Ashes can be received by non -Catholics

Anyone, even not Catholic, can receive ash. According to him Catechism (n. 1670)the sacramental do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit as the sacraments do, but for the prayer of the Church they “prepare to receive it and have to cooperate with it.”

9. It is not mandatory to receive ash

Ash Wednesday is not a precept day, so it is not mandatory to receive ash or attend Mass. However, it is advisable to participate.

10. Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting and compulsory abstinence

Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting and abstinence, as well as Good Friday. Fasting is mandatory for faithful between 18 and 60 years and consists of a single strong meal. Meat withdrawal applies from 14 years. Lent Fridays are also compulsory abstinence, although in some countries it can be replaced by another penance.

The other Friday of the year also, although according to the country it can be replaced by another type of mortification or offer such as the prayer of the Rosary.