Ash Wednesday is today and the children are enjoying it – see photos
Ash Wednesday, The start of Lent is today, and the children love to run between shops, sing and get sweets as a reward.
Ash Wednesday in the heart of Hafnarfjörður
'Please don't sing the colour song!' reads a pink Post-it note on the Library, and the children have to think of another song. Yes, the most popular song is giving way to another.
„But what shall we sing then?“ the children ask, looking at each other. The sweets manager suggests a song and gets to hear his favourite – one last time.
The kids are now running between shops and collecting sweets on this brilliant Ash Wednesday. The weather is very good, the atmosphere even better, and they're loving it.
As stated on the University's Science website, Ash Wednesday The start day of Lent, the Wednesday in the 7th week before Easter. The date cannot be taken for granted. It can vary between 4 February and 10 March. But this year, Ash Wednesday is on 18 February.
The Great Day of Atonement
But why is the day called Ash Wednesday? „Ash Wednesday has long been important in the Catholic liturgical year and its name is derived from the fact that on this day, ashes are sometimes distributed over the heads of churchgoers, for which a special wand is even used. Elsewhere, it is customary for ashes to be smeared on the foreheads of churchgoers.
As can be read in many places in the Bible, Ash symbolises the perishable and unworthy, but it has also been considered to possess wholesome and cleansing power. Lent is the ecclesiastical season of penance, and the scattering of ashes over the congregation reminds them of their mortality and at the same time cleanses them of their sins,“ says the website Vísindavefurinn.
Let's enjoy the pictures and the joy with the children.