What the…?

So today, I was running late getting to Trax after clocking out a few minutes later than I normally do. Mind you, if I clock out at 4:53, I usually have one minute to spare getting to the train but today I clocked out at 4:55. I manically paced my way through the first floor from IR at University Hospital to the elevators at the Moran building, take the elevator to the first floor of the Moran building( I don't understand how the numbering of the floors is different) and then run across the street to a Trax that I KNOW is going to leave me behind. Luckily, I made it!!! I found a seat close to the front cart with a woman who was sitting with her back to me as I approached. I quickly took the seat in front of her and after I gathered my belongings on my lap, I looked up to smile and say, “Hello” and my eyes were drawn from her eyes to her forehead. “What the…?”, were the first thoughts in my head. She had a black substance smeared on her head. Trying not to stare too much, I tried to make out the design of the smear and realized, it must be Ash Wednesday because that smear looks like a cross.

The hospital I used to work at in Florida, we had a large Catholic and Christian community that participated in observing Ash Wednesday.  My co-workers would come back with the mark of the cross on their foreheads and would work all day with that black ash just smearing all over their forehead. I asked a good friend of mine why he observed Ash Wednesday and he explained to me, “For forty days, I give up something I love for Lent. This year is Facebook”. Hahaha, that still cracks me up but he was serious. He would fast and be penitent during Lent trying to feel closer to the Lord.

Here is what I found online about Ash Wednesday:

Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter. It can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.

According to the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, during which he endured temptation by Satan. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this 40-day liturgical period of prayer and fasting.

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. The ashes used are typically gathered after the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday are burned.

This practice is common in much of Christendom, being celebrated by Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and some Baptist denominations.

Happy Ash Wednesday everyone!!