Ash Wednesday is a Christian holy day of prayer and fasting. Preceded by Shrove Tuesday, it falls on the first day of Lent, the six weeks of penitence before Easter. It is traditionally observed by Western Christians.
Ash Wednesday derives its name from the placing of repentance ashes on the foreheads of participants in the sign of the cross to either the words “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” or the dictum “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The ashes are prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebrations. Many Christians begin Ash Wednesday by making a Lenten sacrifice that they will not partake of until the arrival of Easter.
Traditionally on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all Fridays during Lent, adult Catholics over the age of 14 abstain from eating meat (ie the flesh of warm-blooded animals). As fish are cold blooded it is acceptable to eat them on fasting days.
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