From early times, to cover oneself with ashes or to roll about in them has been an expression of grief, penitence, or sorrow. Early Christian penitents borrowed this mode of prayer from the Jews. Ash Wednesday (officially "Day of Ashes") marks the beginning of the Lenten fast.
"Lent" comes from the word "Lenten" which means "spring." At first only catechumens and their sponsors fasted for a few days prior to Easter as a final preparation for baptism. But by 325 A.D. a forty day Lenten fast was generally observed. In many places, Saturdays and Sundays were exempted from the fast. Sundays, especially, remained a day of feasting in honor of the resurrection of Christ. The forty days are a memorial of the forty days Jesus fasted in the wilderness and the forty years Israel wandered in the desert (Num 32:13; Lk 4:1-4). In the language of numbers, forty means forever.
At one time, ashes were placed on the heads of those who had committed grave public sins as they were turned out of the Church on Ash Wednesday to begin a period of public penance (1 Cor 5:1-5). About the year 1000 A.D., the rest of the faithful began wearing ashes on Ash Wednesday and engaging in the Lenten fast. Today, the blessed ashes used in Catholic Churches come from palm fronds which were used in the Palm Sunday services of the previous year. Although Ash Wednesday is a day of fast and abstinence, wearing ashes on this day is not obligatory.
In some areas, customs now associated with Good Friday, were practiced on Ash Wednesday. These include punishing Judas Iscariot in effigy by dragging about, shooting, and stoning a Jack-a-Lent (similar to a scarecrow). Another custom, probably steming from the association of Judas with the potter's field (purchased with the money he received for betraying Christ), was to break crockery by throwing it down a hill in the belief that the sharp pieces would cut the traitor (Mt 27:3-10).
In biblical times, tearing one's clothes, fasting, and the wearing of sackcloth accompanied the ashes of repentance. When Jonah entered Nineveh crying, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," the king sat in ashes and ordered every human and beast to fast and put on sackcloth (Jonah 3:4-9). Jesus warned the towns where His miracles were performed that if the pagan cities of Tyre and Sidon had witnessed such proofs of the Messiah's presence, they would have "repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes" (Lk 10:13; Mt 11:21). Even the righteous Job repented "in dust and ashes" when he met the Lord in a whirlwind (Job 42:6). During the days of public penance, the penitents were given blessed hairshirts to wear during the forty days of Lent during which (as a memorial of Adam's exile from Eden) they were forbidden to enter the Church (Gen 3:21-24).
Egyptians, Greeks, Arabs, and Jews placed ashes on their heads and even sat or rolled about in ashes when overcome with mourning or grief. King David's daughter, Tamar, "put ashes on her head, and tore her robe...and went away crying bitterly" when raped by her brother Amnon (2 Sam 13:19). On those occasions when it was too late for repentance, the Lord told His people to "roll about in ashes" for grief because of the harshness of His coming judgments (Jer 6:26, 25:34). Ezekiel warned that the fall of the great trading city of Tyre would be so great that the surrounding nations would "cry bitterly" and "roll about in ashes" (Ezek 27:30). The ashes worn on Ash Wednesday announce that such grief is also felt over the death of our Lord and the fact that our sins were the cause of it.
The Psalmist, describing the many sorrows of his life, writes that he has "eaten ashes like bread" (Psa 102:9). Jeremiah, lamenting the sorrowful state his ministry has brought him to, complains that the Lord has covered him with ashes (Lam 3:16). Israel eagerly anticipated the Anointed One who would come "to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning..." (Isa 61:3).
As dust is the end of matter; ashes are the end of fire. As such, they represent the lifeless body - its heat or spirit departed. On Ash Wednesday, the words "Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return" are spoken as the faithful receive their ashes. These ashes are a reminder of the shortness of human life, its humble origins, the beginning of sin and death, and the vanity of earthly pursuits. They are echoed in the familiar funerary refrain, "Ashes to ashes; dust to dust." Humankind received its mortality in the Garden of Eden when God told Adam he would "return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return" (Gen 3:19). In some monasteries, it was once the custom to lay the dying upon crosses made of ashes to ensure a blessed death.
During rites of passage in primitive societies, the candidates may be covered or painted with ashes to show that they have died to their old selves. Holy men in India sometimes cover themselves with ashes to show that they have renounced earthly desires. During Lent, one might consider oneself dead to certain habits or foods.
By dying to the world, the Christian hopes to be resurrected into a new life (James 4:10). The Lord is said to lift the beggar and the needy from the ash heap (1 Sam 2:8; Psa 113:7). This hope is symbolized by the phoenix which periodically renews itself by burning its old body upon a funeral pyre and then rising from the ashes.
In times of great need, the significance of wearing ashes is that one has realized the weakness of man's strength and humbled oneself by dying to worldly attempts to set things straight. One is now calling upon one's only hope - the Lord God - for assistance. When Holophernes turned his invincible army towards Judea, the entire population "prostrated themselves in front of the sanctuary, and, with ashes on their heads, spread out their sackcloth before the Lord" (Judith 4:11-15 REB).
When Mordecai learned of Haman's plan to exterminate the Jews in 474 B.C., "he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He cried with a loud and bitter cry. And in every province where the king's command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes" (Est 4:1-3). The prophet Daniel, petitioning for an end to the Babylonian captivity, joined "fasting, sackcloth, and ashes" to his prayers (Dan 9:3). Job, while Satan raged against his innocence, sat in ashes asserting that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. "Blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21; 2:7-11). The people in all these stories realized their utter helplessness against the onslaught of their enemies and wore ashes to get the attention of their Lord in whom was all their hope (See Psa 39:6-7).
Ashes are also used to signify worthless things. In his downcast state, Job considered himself to be "dust and ashes" (Job 30:19). The platitudes his friends offered him seemed to be "proverbs of ashes" (Job 13:12). The idolater unwittingly feeds on ashes (Isa 44:20). Abraham, expressed his humility before the Lord while pleading for the city of Sodom by referring to himself as "dust and ashes" which would yet "speak to the Lord" (Gen 18:27).
The Lord uses ashes for His own purposes. When Pharaoh refused to let Israel go, God had Moses and Aaron take "handfuls of ashes from a furnace" and scatter them before Pharaoh. These ashes caused boils to break out on Egypt's people and animals (Ex 9:8-10). During the Millennial Kingdom, even the valley of the ashes will be considered holy and dedicated to the purposes of the Lord (Jer 31:40).
Worthless ashes are used to describe the absolute destruction of a person or place. Alleged witches were once burnt and their ashes scattered in rivers to complete their destruction and prevent their ghosts from seeking revenge. The king of the Chaldeans punished those who displeased him by burning their houses into ash heaps (Dan 2:5; 3:29). Josiah destroyed the idols he found in the temple by burning them and scattering their ashes on graves (2 Ki 23:4-6). The Lord condemned Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes along with many other wicked places (2 Pet 2:6; Gen 18-19; Ezek 28:18). On the Day of the Lord, the righteous will walk upon the ashes of the wicked who have been burned up in God's judgments (Mal 4:3). The turn of fortune experienced by the Israelites during the siege of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. is summed up by saying "those who were brought up in scarlet embrace ash heaps" (Lam 4:5).
The idea of using blessed ashes in Christian ceremonies was borrowed from the Mosaic rite of the red heifer (Num 19). The ashes of the red heifer were for the "water of purification" and the "purifying from sin" (Num 19:9). According to this ritual, everyone who became unclean by touching a dead body had to be sprinkled with the ashes of a red heifer mixed with water on the third and seventh days after the contact. On the seventh day, after being sprinkled, the unclean person had to bathe and wash his clothes. Then in the evening he would be clean again. If he tried to enter the tabernacle without being thus purified, he would be killed because his uncleanness would contaminate the holy place and everyone he touched. Ashes were used in other cultures for purification - possibly because the primitive soap known as "lye" was made from them. It is important to note that, ritually, ashes merely soak up evil; to be truly cleansed, one must wash off the ashes. The writer of Hebrews notes that the rite of the red heifer only purifies the flesh, while the superior blood of Christ purifies the conscience (Heb 9:14).
In early or primitive cultures, ashes are believed to have the concentrated powers of the person or creature they come from. This is similar to the truth that if you boil down a large quantity of sap you get a very sweet and condensed maple sugar.
The ashes of Ash Wednesday are placed on the foreheads of the faithful in the form of a cross to show that we belong to Christ and not to the world. The sign of the cross not only reminds us of the cross our Savior died on, but, also of the Greek letter "chi," which is the first letter of the word "Christos." This letter looks like an "X" as does the Jewish letter "tav." Early Jewish scholars believed that the mark God ordered placed on Jerusalem's faithful in Ezekiel's vision of the day of the Lord was the "tav." On this day everyone in the city without the "tav" upon his forehead would be destroyed (Ezek 9:4-7). This saving "tav" is believed to be the same as the seal worn on the foreheads of the servants of God in St. John's Revelation (Rev 7:2-8; 9:4; 14:1-5). In the last days, those who belong to Christ will wear the "tav" or cross, while those belonging to the beast will wear the numbers 666 (Rev 13:16-18).
The Lenten aim of fasting, and ashes is that of conversion. The Lord does not order a fast to gain the affliction of souls. The fast He chooses is "to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed to free, and ...break every yoke" (Isa 58:5-6).
All scripture quotes are from the NKJV Bible.
Read more about ashes, Ash Wednesday, and Lent at:
Comments© 1998 by Suzetta Tucker
To cite this page:
Tucker, Suzetta. "ChristStory Ashes Page." ChristStory
Christian Bestiary. 1998. http://ww2.netnitco.net/users/legend01/ashes.htm
().