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**Eilonnwy** · February 25, 2009 at 12:14 pm

So how many of you guys have seen people with ashes on their foreheads? I'm a very Catholic city and have a lot of Catholic coworkers, so a bunch of people have ashes on their head. Even when I was a Catholic, I thought it was a silly ritual.

**Tiberius** · February 25, 2009 at 12:25 pm

People put ashes on their foreheads??? When did this happen?

**Eilonnwy** · February 25, 2009 at 12:42 pm

(February 25, 2009 at 12:25 pm)Tiberius Wrote: People put ashes on their foreheads??? When did this happen?

It happens every Ash Wednesday. You don't what that is? Maybe it's only a Catholic thing, I'm not sure.

Basically Ash Wednesday is the day that marks the beginning of Lent which is the 40 day holy period before holy week (Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter). People got to church and get holy ashes on their head in the shape of a cross (Though usually it ends up looking like a dot) with an incantation.

You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday

I used to get ashes on my forehead when I was a child.

**Tiberius** · February 25, 2009 at 1:09 pm

Oh I know about Ash Wednesday, I used to celebrate it when I was a Christian. I just never used to smear ashes on my head...and I didn't think people would do that anyway. What's the point of it??? :S

**LukeMC** · February 25, 2009 at 1:45 pm

It's like people wearing robes and carrying lightsabers on the anniversary of starwars. But in seriousness...

Rockthatpiano06 · February 25, 2009 at 2:24 pm

I think it's mostly a catholic thing. I grew up in Staten Island, NY which is extremely Catholic and I was methodist so I could never understand why we didnt do it too, haha. But yeah, kids used to come to school late with ashes on their heads! I was always slightly jealous (I was a weird kid).

**Eilonnwy** · February 25, 2009 at 3:30 pm

It;s funny because half my coworkers have black dots on their head.

**leo-rcc** · February 25, 2009 at 4:02 pm

I used to get an ash cross when I was a kid, as I lived 100 yards from the church that wasn't much of a trek.

Rob · February 25, 2009 at 8:30 pm

They used to make a big deal out of it in school. There'd be a mass in the morning the entire school would attend (all one thousand and odd of us) and one by one a strange man would put ashes on our foreheads. Though I don't think it was clearly explained to us why :S

chatpilot · February 25, 2009 at 8:48 pm

I used to have a job as a receptionist for a couple of years and everytime someone came in with ashes on their forehead I used to mess with them by telling them that they had some dirty stain on their head.I have no respect for religious rituals and think of them as funny and ignorant.Maybe the pastafarians can come up with an equivalent holiday where all pastafarians walk around with spaghetti on their heads for a day,you never know it might catch on.

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