Ash Wednesday evolved from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting. Ashes have long been a visible symbol of humanity’s grief that our sin caused division from God. Writings from the second-century refer to the wearing of ashes on the head as a sign of penance. They were even applied after going to confession in the early Church. The ashes also symbolize the dust from which God made us. This is recalled when a priest applies the ashes to a person’s forehead and says, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Yet the ashes are also a symbol of our hope that God is gracious and merciful to those who call on Him with repentant hearts.
The most visible sign of the Ash Wednesday service is the ashes themselves. Each parish typically makes its own from the palms that were blessed during the previous year’s Palm Sunday services. The palms are burned in a metal vessel and then broken down into a powder.