The Do’s and Dont’s of Ash Wednesday
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It’s up to you. Ash Wednesday is not a Holy Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church, so Catholics can choose whether to go to church and where the ashes would be placed on their foreheads. They’re also permitted to make their own decisions about when and how to remove the ashes. Many Catholics leave the mark on all day but wash it off before bedtime. Ashes also tend to flake off by themselves, or get rubbed away by absentminded forehead brushings. (Services can happen at any time of day, so it’s at least conceivable that Santorum and Gingrich might receive the ashes after their early-evening debate in Arizona.)
For Catholics, the ashes are considered a sign of penitence and mortality. They are rubbed in with a prayer that says, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” In the United States, the dark smudge is supposed to take the shape of the cross, or a smudge vaguely resembling a cross depending on the precision of the person giving you ashes, but customs vary around the world. In Europe, ashes are sprinkled on the top of a person’s head. (One consistent tradition is for Ash Wednesday ashes to come from burning last year’s Palm Sunday fronds. The ashes are often combined with oil for sticking power, and sometimes bought from religious suppliers when churches are short on palm fronds.)
Despite its being an optional observance, Ash Wednesday Masses and services are among the busiest in the Catholic Church’s liturgical year. Several mainline Protestant churches including the Episcopal, Methodist, and Lutheran churches distribute ashes as well.
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I find it amusing that fundies have no problem with being formed from a pile of dirt but choke on the notion of having arisen from nonhuman ancestors.