Christians observe Ash Wednesday

Christians today observe Ash Wednesday, which signals the start of Lent/Lenten season, a period of prayer, fasting, renewal, penance and sacrifice.
The season will last until April 17, with members of some Christian denominations observing 40 days of prayer and fasting in preparation for Easter, which signifies the period when Jesus Christ, the son of God rose from the dead.
Christians attend church (mass) and practice the ritual of placing ashes in the form of a cross on their foreheads during Ash Wednesday, as a signal of repentance and renewal.
Some Christians utilise this period as a time for reflection and abstaining from certain social practices.
Father Carl Philadelphia of the St. Pius Roman Catholic Church, La Penitence, Georgetown, shared that Ash Wednesday is a time in the Catholic Church where the three pillars of Lent are observed: prayers, fasting, and arms giving.
“It’s a time when we receive ashes…on our forehead, symbolising that we’re entering a time of penance and renewal. So, Ash Wednesday is that significant time of the beginning of Lent. The church in its wisdom realises that it gives us this time, this period to just look at ourselves, to reflect on ourselves and ask an important question: ‘How am I living my Christian life?’ How am I representing the light of Christ to my brothers and sisters?’,” he noted.
He also referred to the significance of the use of palms for ashes.
“These same palms that we take on Palm Sunday, we save it the entire year and on Ash Wednesday, people bring the palms to be burnt to use for the ashes that will be put across on your forehead. So that is where the ashes come from. In the time of the Old Testament they used to put ashes as sackcloth at the beginning of a period of penance, but we’ve evolved and put the cross because the cross is the significance for the church, because the cross is the sign of where Jesus was crucified. The cross is the symbol of our Christian identity,” Father Philadelphia said.
Prayer, he noted, is practiced as a way of connecting with God, while arms giving is a period of being charitable to the less fortunate in society.
Fasting, Father Philadelphia explained, signifies not only abstaining from food but sinful activities and prejudices.