Ash Wednesday

(Liturgical color is purple, and rarely “Lenten Array”, black, or grey)The Wednesday marking the beginning of the season of Lent, usually observed with a period of fasting and spiritual preparation. In the Ash Wednesday liturgy, the celebrant usually smears ashes on a person's forehead as a mark of their mortality ("Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.") The ashes are often pulverized burned palms saved from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebration mixed with anointing oil.