Tag: Palm cross

Ash Wednesday

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Ash Wednesday

Following Shrove Tuesday yesterday, today is Ash Wednesday, the official first day of Lent during the Christian year and the prelude to Easter.

Lent represents the 40 days that Jesus Christ spent in the wilderness, fasting and contemplating his mission on earth.

Today is known as the ‘Day of Ashes’ because of the practice of having ash rubbed &  drawn on the forehead in the shape of a cross (representing Christ’s crucifixion), by a priest at the dedicated Ash Wednesday church service.

The priest and participants from the church congregation intone the phrase either the words:-

“Repent, and believe in the Gospel” or  the dictum “Remember that you are dust, and to dust, you shall return.”       

Anglican, Catholic, and most Protestant and Christians hold Ash Wednesday services around the world. Following the service, participants observe some sort of fasting, abstinence and spiritual contemplation for 40 Days, ending on Maundy Thursday in 2018.

The practice of using ash comes from the 11th Century and is taken from the Biblical Book of Daniel, where ashes are regarded as a sign of Penance & fasting.

The ashes are normally made by the burning of palm crosses. These palm crosses were handed out to church congregations during the previous year’s Palm Sunday service (commemorating Christ’s entry into Jerusalem to crowds waving palm leaves in celebration) and given back to the priest shortly before Ash Wednesday.

The priest will then burn the crosses and mix the ash normally with Holy Oil to sanctify and make a ‘paste’ with which to rub on the participant’s forehead.

The Roman Catholic 5-Points of Ash Wednesday.

Father Rix, a young Filipino Catholic priest had very succinctly put that putting ashes on your forehead without knowing or practice the five embodiment of Ash Wednesday was just like putting dirt on your forehead and nothing relevant about it.

What are the 5 Points?

  1. Repentance; we have to accept our sins, change and not do it again then move forward.
  2. Quaresma is the 40 days of repentance before Easter, where you give up something you enjoy as a reminder that you are in repentance.
  3. Fasting and Abstinence.
  4. Prayers and Alms-giving
  5. Ash reminds us of our mortality that we came from dust and in dust, we shall return.

Palm Sunday

Blogs Easter/Lent Philippines Superstitions
Jesus on a donkey @ V&A Photo by PH Morton

Jesus on a donkey @ V&A, Photo by PH Morton

 

Palm Sunday is a movable feast and so is Easter for that matter.

A movable feast is based on a complex formula that has something to do with the marriage between the Justinian and the Gregorian calendars, coupled with Western and Eastern traditions.  In addition, phases of the moon are also incorporated.

Anyway Palm Sunday is seven days before Easter. It is the time to commemorate Jesus’s entrance to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.  He rode an ass or donkey as opposed to a horse; a horse is perceived more as a warlike or used by the rich & nobles etc.. Whilst the donkey is symbolic of humility and peace.  Jesus wanted to show that he was for the poor as well as for the rich.   Jesus was for Everyman.

It was said that the people laid down their cloaks and little palm leaves to the path where Jesus would pass.

Today the Churches will give their parishioners branches or palm leaves, some are woven into crosses, to raise and wave during exultation and prayers.

The little palm crosses are encouraged to be taken home and put away to be taken back for next year’s Ash Wednesday.

Some superstitions have been attached to the crosses. In the Philippines which I have carried back here in the UK, the crosses are hung up over windows or doorways. This is to prevent the house from being struck by lightning.

Palm Crosses that are handed out by the Priest at churches are normally made by religious orders.

Make your own paper cross. Click here.