Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of lent, which is the 40 days and nights before Easter.  Some people do not practice lent on a Sunday, as it is a “feast day” where we break bread with our friends and family following Church.  It symbolises the 40 days and nights Jesus spent in the desert.

Some people practice lent by giving up something – often chocolate, wine, and other treats, and some practice it with self sacrifice, by doing good deeds for others meaningfully over the lentern period.

Ash Wednesday is the day where the palms from the previous years Palm Sunday are burnt and an ashen cross is marked on our foreheads as an outward sign of our faith.