By Michael Gryboski, Editor Wednesday, February 18, 2026

For many Christians worldwide, the weeks leading up to Easter are a time of fasting, solemn contemplation and abstaining from certain luxuries and foods.

Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a season on the liturgical calendar representing 40 days plus Sundays which are not counted.

There are many traditions and customs associated with Lent. Some, like Ash Wednesday's ash cross on the forehead, and Catholics and some Lutherans abstaining from eating meat on Fridays, are fairly well known, but there are others. 

Here are five interesting facts about Lent. 

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By Michael Gryboski, Editor Wednesday, February 18, 2026

1. The meaning of ashes

Ash Wednesday worship involves church services where ashes are placed in the shape of a cross on worshipers' foreheads. The practice is meant to symbolize mortality and penance.

The use of ashes for these purposes has a long history in Judeo-Christian circles, as seen in the Old Testament when various figures would wear sackcloth and put ashes on their heads as a solemn call to repentance.

The apologetics website Got Questions explains that the Bible never mentions Ash Wednesday, but "it does record accounts of people in the Old Testament using dust and ashes as symbols of repentance and/or mourning (2 Samuel 13:19; Esther 4:1; Job 2:8; Daniel 9:3)."

"Since the Bible nowhere explicitly commands or condemns such a practice, Christians are at liberty to prayerfully decide whether or not to observe Ash Wednesday," the site adds. 

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