Next Wednesday is the start of Lent, when Christians begin fasting in preparation for Good Friday, marking the crucifixion of Christ, and then Easter.
This year it falls on March 1, the day after Shrove Tuesday, or 'pancake day' – traditionally a day of feasting and using up all remaining eggs, butter and other 'rich' foodstuffs in the house before the fasting begins.
Lent involves 40 days of fasting, reflecting the time Jesus spent fasting in the desert when he was tempted by Satan. Ash Wednesday always falls 46 days before Easter because six of the days are Sundays, when Christians are allowed to break their fast, and the final week has just four days.
A common practice on Ash Wednesday is for Christians to receive the sign of the cross on their forehead, with ashes that are the cinders of burned palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday. This is a reminder that we all come from dust, and to dust we will return.
Sometimes, ashes are sprinkled on a person's head instead of crossed on the forehead. The priest will say, 'Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,' or 'Repent, and believe in the Gospel.'
The words about 'dust' come from Genesis 19, when God was talking to Adam and Eve after they had given into the temptation of the serpent and eaten the apple. God said to Eve that she should eat dust, and to Adam, 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.'
