Haha, why? Have you missed the last few, oh, idk, decades? It is funny that you are saying this religious bullshit happens but once a year because it honestly feels like religious bullshit is shoved in my face every fucking day. Birth control access is now about religious liberty? Gays can’t marry because of religion? I am an atheist born Catholic and raised in the greater Boston area and I think religion and rituals like Ash Wednesday are pathetic. Yes, it most definitely makes me question people’s intelligence, especially if I only previously knew them in a professional/intellectual capacity. Also, I was commenting on the hypocrisy of being a Catholic in name only, and also only participating on big days like Ash Wednesday. These are people who are not religious every other day of the year. And I find it hilarious that educated adults walk around with dirt on their foreheads in 2012 with no sense of irony. I know, let’s support and belong to an evil patriarchal backwards facing religion that wants to deny human rights to women and gays because it is a quaint comforting ritual. Gross.Mark your calenders! Lent starts tomorrow.
Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter. It can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.
According to the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent forty days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, during which he endured temptation by Satan. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this forty day liturgical period of prayer and fasting.
Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. The ashes used are typically gathered after the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday are burned. This practice is common in much of Christendom, being celebrated by Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and some Baptist denominations.
Source- Wikipedia
Ash Wednesday, aka Epic Hangover Day
Fuck. I really hate Ash Wednesday. Around Boston it seems like 90% of the people are all of a sudden practicing Catholics. Ugh, nothing more disappointing than seeing a formerly revered and seemingly intelligent person walking around with a soot cross on their forehead. What century is this?
If you don’t agree with someone’s religious choice, fine. If you don’t wish to participate in a particular religious philosophy, fine. But, if people are willing, even if only briefly, to renew their faith through its rituals, so be it. You don’t have to like it, it doesn’t have to please you, but please keep your aspersions about the religiosity of others to yourself. Boston is heavily Catholic, and Ash Wednesday marks one of the more important dates of the Catholic spiritual calender. I think it’s possible to survive it for one day a year, no?
crazy cat peekin through a lace bandana... 