Ash Wednesday

“ On Ash Wednesday ashes are blessed and put on the forehead of the faithful in the form of a cross, with the words, "Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return," to remind them that they are only dust and ashes. These are the ashes of burnt palms blessed the Palm Sunday of the previous year. These palms are blessed in memory of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, when the people spread palm branches along the way. This palm should remind us to perform faithfully our duty if we wish to enjoy the palm of victory. ”

“ Though some men cannot sing, they can, nevertheless, bear the light in their hands; for on this day was Christ the true light borne to the temple, Who redeemed us from darkness, and bringeth us to the Eternal Light, who liveth and ruleth for ever.”
Ash Wednesday.—The great fast of Lent, which was a time devoted to penance for sins, and in which sorrow for offences was increased by the continual memory of Christ’s suffering and death for mankind, was ushered in by what was known as Shrove-tide. This was the week that followed Quinquagesima Sunday, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. ”

“ Harlequin improvises couplets in a sarcastic vein, and the crowd of spectators is not slow to apply each sally to some well-known person; whence it comes that Ash Wednesday carries a sense of relief to many worthy individuals. May brings with it more dances and milder 182 songs. Young men plant a tree, with a nosegay atop, before their sweethearts' doors, and then go singing ”

“ Valentine's Day, and to-morrow will be Ash Wednesday, and so good-bye for a season to the pleasures of Terpsichore. No, he is observant of nothing, excepting the many stoppages, at which he is impatient. Even electric lighted King street is passed through unnoticed; men thinking, on seeing his bent head and knit brows, poor fellow, probably bit by the "Central." ”

“ The Lenten fast does not embrace all the days included between Ash Wednesday and Easter, for the Sundays are so many days above the number of forty. They are excluded, because the Lord’s day is always held as a festival, and never as a fast. These six Sundays are, therefore, called Sundays in Lent, not Sundays of Lent. They are in the midst of it, but do not form part of it. On them we continue, without interruption, to celebrate our Saviour’s resurrection. ”

“ In old times verses from the Gospels, inscribed upon a richly ornamented banner surrounded with palm-leaves, were carried in this procession, and it was frequently also accompanied by the chalice containing the host, in the midst of consecrated branches. It was, as a rule, customary that the ashes employed for the ceremony of Ash Wednesday should be those of the branches carried in the procession of the preceding year, and which were carefully preserved from year to year, and burnt when thoroughly desiccated. ”

“ On Ash Wednesday (February 1706–7) he preached at Whitehall Chapel, and denounced the favour shown in high places to champions of heterodoxy like Asgill, Toland, and Emlyn, and to puritans and presbyterians. ”

“ The devotions of the Lenten Fast are intimately connected with Easter which it precedes and are intended to prepare the mind and heart for the devout celebration of the "Queen of Festivals" and for the Easter Communion. Lent being a penitential season the ecclesiastical color is purple or violet. The Benedicite takes the place of the Te Deum and the Ash Wednesday Collect is used every day throughout the Season. ”

“ They contain many new thoughts, and the subjects dealt with are treated in new ways. The subjects chosen for Ash Wednesday, the Sundays in Lent, Good Friday, Easter Eve and Easter Day, are singularly appropriate, viz.: "Self-Denial," "Conflict," "Help," "Perseverance," "Relief," "Sacrifice." "Triumph," "Suffering," "The Body of Jesus," "The Conqueror of the Grave."
Many of the thoughts are illustrated by similes and anecdotes very touching and appropriate.
It will be difficult to find Lenten Sermons better suited to country congregations and to others who appreciate plain teaching. ”

“ Ash Wednesday (p. 150) , by J. D. Watson, is a singularly fine example of an artist whose work, the more you come across it, surprises you by its sustained power. The frontispiece Spring Days and A Romance and A Curacy (p. 386) , are his also. Other illustrations by T. Morten, H. Sanderson, C. H. Bennett, Adelaide Claxton, Julian Portch, and F. R. Pickersgill, R.A., call for no special comment. In the second volume there are two drawings by Lawless, First Night at the Seaside (p. 220) and A Box on the Ear (p. 382) ”

“ There are none so great that their dignity would suffer by a day's reckless foolery, and there are none so poor that they cannot take the price of a dinner to buy a mask and cheat their misery by mingling for a time with their betters in the wild license of the Carnival.
The winter's gayety dies hard. Ash Wednesday is a day of loud merriment and is devoted to a popular ceremony called the Burial of the Sardine. A vast throng of workingmen carry with great pomp a link of sausage to the bank of the Manzanares and inter it there with great solemnity. ”

“ Their Major Lent begins on Monday of Quinquagesima week and terminates on Holy Saturday. From Ash Wednesday until Easter Day they keep xerophagy except on Saturdays and Sundays, when milk diet is allowed. Besides, they devote the week preceding the feasts of the Transfiguration, the Assumption, the Holy Cross, and St. Gregory to abstinence and fasting. They are likewise obliged to abstain for one week during Advent, one week preceding the feast of St. ”

“ Beef bought for the same day, 20d. Mustard bought at Ashby, 1d. Cheese bought on Friday in Sexagesima week, 5d. Thomas Fene for 2 quarters of red-herrings for Lent, 12d. Nicholas Swon (the swineherd, as the reader may remember) , 2d. for catching two small pike at the sluice.”
The Lenten arrangements for feeding the natural man and woman from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday in those hardy and robust days are, even to think of, enough to turn our refined and educated stomachs. Eggs, to a certain limited extent, no doubt these good religious had ”

“ Then Tuesday led them in a lively dance, as light and graceful as an elfin sprite; and Wednesday twined beautiful wreaths of oak leaves for their hats, and daisy chains for their necks.
Thursday alone was cross and sullen, sulking by himself, because Monday gave so many berries to little Sunday, and he persisted in knocking off the heads of the flowers, and robbing the radiant butterflies of their wings, until tender-hearted Friday was almost in tears, and offered him a bright dime she had in her pocket if he would stop doing so ”

“ It is said to be unlucky to be born on a Wednesday, for this day of the week throughout the year is considered to be an ill-omened one in the oases—the last Wednesday of the month of Safar being considered to be the most unlucky of all. ”

“ Somebody has made a mistake. Sunday was fine, Faith. How could you have thought Saturday was Sunday?"
"Prayer meeting was Thursday night," cried Faith, "and Adam flew into the soup-pot on Friday when Aunt Martha's cat chased him, and spoiled our dinner; and Saturday there was a snake in the cellar and Carl caught it with a forked stick and carried it out, and Sunday it rained. So there!"
"Prayer meeting was Wednesday night," said Mary. ”

“ Wednesday is to be fasted, because then the Jews conspired to betray Jesus; Friday, because he then suffered for us. We keep the Lord’s Day as a day of joy, because then our Lord rose. Our tradition is, not to kneel on that day. ”

“ For my part, I so far believe in this superstition that I never set out for a journey, or commence any new work on Friday, if I have the option of any other day. Thursday has always been an unlucky day for me. Most of my accidents, disappointments, illnesses have happened on Thursdays. Wednesday has been my luckiest day. Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday the days when I have mostly experienced occult phenomena. On All-Hallows E'en the spirits of the dead are supposed to walk. ”

“ There is an undefinable character and distinctiveness about Sunday morning which is not possessed by any other day of the week.
Not that the remaining six are lacking in individuality. Monday is a depressed and reluctant individual; Tuesday is a full-blooded and energetic citizen; Wednesday a cheerful and contented gentleman who does not intend to overwork himself to-day,—this is probably due to the fact that we used to have a half-holiday on Wednesdays at school ”

“ Ember Days.—The beginning of the four seasons of the year is marked by Ember Week, during which Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday are days of fasting and abstinence. Ember Week occurs after the first Sunday of Lent, after Pentecost, after the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and after the third Sunday in Advent. ”

“ What we have thought and said under the august presence of witnessing stars, or beneath the holy shadows of moonlight, seems with the dry, hot heat of next day’s sun to take wings, and rise to heaven with the night’s clear drops. If all the prayers and good resolutions which are laid down on sleeping pillows could be found there on awaking, the world would be better than it is. ”

“ It is backed like a weasel.
Hamlet. Or like a whale?
Polonius. Very like a whale."
Since Shakspeare's time, it has been used as a proverb in reply to any remark partaking of the marvellous.]
Wednesday a Litany Day.—Why is Wednesday made a Litany day by the Church? We all know why Friday was made a fast; but why should Wednesday be sacred?
Anon.
[Wednesdays and Fridays were kept as fasts in the primitive Church: because on the one our Lord was betrayed, on the other crucified. See Mant and Wheatley.] ”

“ The marriage generally comes off on a Sunday. Who weds on Monday goes mad; Tuesday will bring a bad end; Wednesday is a day good for nothing; Thursday all manner of witches are abroad; Friday leads to early death ”

“ Because Thursday wouldn’t be any more probable than Wednesday,—in fact, less.”
“Yes; it’s confoundedly queer. I suppose he couldn’t possibly—Gordon, what date was the Wednesday?”
“The 17th.”
“It was? Then the Tuesday would be the 16th, and the Thursday the 18th.”
“My dear Reeves! How on earth . . .”
“Child’s play, my dear Gordon. No, but look here, it’s serious. Don’t you see that if there’s one day of the week whose name can be easily changed to another it’s Tuesday, which you can always change to Thursday? ”

“ For the Sabbath day is a day for rest and holy thought, and the late August is the rest time of the year, when the woods and fields are all asleep in a slumberous blue haze; the sacred time, too, for in late August old Mother Earth is breathing her holiest aspirations heavenward, having made offering of her best in the full fruitage of the year. ”

“ A man born on Monday will be jealous, on Tuesday honest, on Wednesday bad-tempered, on Thursday quiet, on Friday garrulous, on Saturday quarrelsome, and on Sunday stingy. Each day also has a particular animal which represents it. Monday is represented by a tiger, Tuesday, a lion, etc., and in temples one sees yellow and wax candles made in the form of these animals, representing his birthday, placed before the god by the man who wishes special benefits from lord Buddha. ”

“ Wednesday and Thursday, day work only. On Friday morning till Saturday night, the same labour repeated, with the same intermissions as endured on Monday, Monday night, and Tuesday; only the labour of the last day closed at five, when the poor wretches were dismissed. The ensuing day, Sunday, must, under such circumstances, be a day of stupor, to rouse the children from which would often only be to continue their physical sufferings, without the possibility of compensating them with any moral good. ”

“ And, in strange tracts of wildwood, all day long, They tell the story in surpassing song. November Now beats the first warm pulse of Summer—now There shines great glory on the mountain's brow. The face of heaven in the western sky, When falls the sun, is filled with Deity! And while the first light floods the lake and lea, The morning makes a marvel of the sea; The strong leaves sing; and in the deep green zones Of rock-bound glens the streams have many tones ”

“ Each day used to be individually felt by me in its reference to the foreign post days; in its distance from, or propinquity to, the next Sunday. I had my Wednesday feelings, my Saturday nights' sensations. ”

“ Wednesday is very similar to Tuesday, though the men are not quite as fresh and vigorous. The pace, though still smart and good, will fall a little below that of the day previous. Three days’ toil begins to tell on the muscles and reserve of the body, though this is counterbalanced by the increase of mental satisfaction and expectation, the knowledge of being in mid-week and of getting within sight of another pay-day and cessation from work. ”

“ June came and went, followed by July and August, with their burning splendor of sunlight and heat. Many of the flowers bloomed in sweetness for a little while, and then dropped their leaves and died to earthly things, and passed away to the heaven where flowers bloom forever. Others, fragrant and fresh and fair, came to take their places, and so the whole world was sweet until the autumn came. ”

“ The memory of my youthful Sundays is fragrant with wintergreens, black birch, and crinkle-root, to say nothing of the harvest apples that grew in our neighbor's orchard; and the memory of my Sundays in later years is fragrant with arbutus, and the showy orchid, and wild strawberries, and touched with the sanctity of woodland walks and hilltops. What day can compare with a Sunday to go to the waterfalls, or to "Piney Ridge," or to "Columbine Ledge," or to stroll along "Snake Lane"? What sweet peace and repose is over all! ”