![]() There are traditions in India, New Zealand, sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere that involve religious symbology born on foreheads, cheeks, and chins. Traditionally viewed as the start of Lent – a 40-day penitential season of fasting and preparation preceding Easter – Ash Wednesday is most widely associated with the "imposition" or "infliction" of ashes on practitioners’ foreheads.Ĭhristians, however, are not alone in marking their faces with religious symbols. ![]() Nonetheless, later this month (February 22, 2023) millions of Christians across the world - Catholic, Lutheran, Anglicans, others – will also don gray smudges on their brows to commemorate Ash Wednesday. These days, in places like H-town, you don’t see too many people wearing their religion on their face. One could not blame the man for mistaking my visible marker of inward penance and outward allegiance to a particular strand of religiosity…for dirt. Ashes smudged on my forehead in the shape – if you looked at it just right and from a 43-degree angle – of a cross. Several years ago, when I was living in Houston, TX, a man walked up to me at a local café and kindly said, "Excuse me sir, you've.um.I think you have dirt on your face."
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