Trivia Tuesday: Ash Wednesday

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday when millions of Christians around the world will be marking their foreheads with ashes as a sign of repentance.

Ash Wednesday has biblical origins, as it was common for Israelites to cover their heads with ashes when they were in a period of mourning or repentance. The ceremony wasn’t used widely by Christians until the sixth century, during the papacy of Gregory the Great in Rome, when ashes were used on the sick and infirm. Ashes weren’t used symbolically for the beginning of Lent until the end of the eleventh century when Pope Urban II suggested this practice.

Today, both Catholic and Protestant Christians from various denominations — including some within the Church of the Nazarene — participate by marking their foreheads with ash. Many people who celebrate Ash Wednesday also celebrate Lent by fasting any number of things they feel too dependent on, such as coffee, soda, chocolate, meat or even modern distractions like Facebook.

Ash Wednesday itself is a moveable feast, since it occurs a specific number of days before Easter. Since Easter falls on a different date each year, Ash Wednesday can be as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.

How many days before Easter does Ash Wednesday occur, and why the odd number?

Take a guess in the comments section, and we'll post the correct answer next week.

Answer to last week's question: B. Liver. In As You Like It, Rosalind promises to cure the lovesick Oliver, saying that her ministering will wash his “liver as clean as a sound sheep’s heart, that there shall not be one spot of love in’t”.