What do you now about Lent season?

Ash Wednesday is one of the most important holy days in the Liturgical Calendar of the Church. Ash Wednesday opens Lent, a season of fasting and prayer.

It is the day when many Christians Mark as the first of Lent, the time of reflection and penitence leading up to Easter Sunday. The clergy worldwide dispense ashes, usually made by burning the palm fronds distributed on last year’s Palm Sunday.  They make the sign of the Cross on the bowed foreheads before them. As they dispense the ashes, the pastor or priest reminds each Christian: “For dust you are and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).

Ashes were used in ancient times to express grief. When Tamar was raped by her half-brother, “she sprinkled ashes on her head, tore her robe, and with her face buried in her hands, went away crying” (2 Samuel 73:19). The gesture was also used to express sorrow for sins and faults, in Job 42:5-6, Job says to God: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth there. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent I dust and ashes.”

“The Prophet Jeremiah calls for repentance by saying: “O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in ashes” (Jeremiah 6:26). Just prior to the New Testament period, the rebels fighting for Jewish independence, the Maccabees prepared for battle using ashes. “That day, they fasted and wore sackcloth; they sprinkled ashes on their heads and tore their clothes” (Maccabees 3:47). A six-week period during which Christians often abstain from rich foods, all forms of anxiety and worldly pleasures in Church, is what we call Lent.

Christians should take part in the annual abstinent period of Lent in order to commemorate Jesus Christ, who, according to a biblical narrative, once spent 40 days and nights fasting in the Judean Desert while being tempted by Satan.

Robert Bigabwarugaba,
robertbigabwarugaba@gmail.com