Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday - the first day of Lent. It marks the start of forty days of penitence and fasting, remembering the forty days Jesus fasted in the wilderness.

Ashes - made from burning the previous year's palm crosses - are blessed. On Ash Wednesday, many Christians attend church and receive the sign of the cross marked in ash on their foreheads as a sign of penitence and an expression of trust in God.

The custom dates back to the middle ages.

https://www.churchofengland.org/faith-life/what-we-believe/lent-holy-week-and-easter