Shove Tuesday / Marti Gras / Carnival - ASH WEDNESDAY – Part 03 of 05

ASH WEDNESDAY - What is the meaning?  Here is THE INTERPRETATION.

February

A weathered mural from 2nd-century B.C. Rome shows women preparing for cult rituals. (Photo by O. Luis Mazzatenta)

The English names of the months famously come to us mostly from Latin, and some are pretty intuitive: June is for the goddess Juno, July and August for Julius and Augustus Caesar. Others are less obvious: January for Janus, the god of doorways and passages, March for Mars, the god of war. And some are confusing, the tenth through twelfth months being named for the numbers eight through ten, since the Romannew year began in March.

But among all this, “February” still sticks out as particularly strange.

First off, there’s the problem of the spelling: many simply pronounce it “Febuary” and so the first “r” seems to come out of nowhere. This though, is a common unconscious adaptation that the human brain and tongue are prone to make, much like saying “nucular” instead of “nuclear,” or children saying “aminal” for “animal.” Language is liquid and always changing, but you could argue that to be accurate, we should all actually pronounce “Feb-ru-ary.”

The reason for this spelling is the interesting part. February too, it turns out, is named for a Roman god, Februus, the god of “februa” or purification. Around the ides (the 15th day) of his month, ancient Romans and Etruscans would celebrate him with a festival of sacrifices and sin offerings. How strange and pagan and ancient! Except of course that to this day February also usually marks the beginning of Lent, the Christian season of repentance and “giving things up.”

A world away, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, some Native American tribes called this time of the year the “Hunger Moon.” With winter stores running low, and spring’s bounty still weeks away, one can see why they’d chose that name. That lights a spark for me though, which makes me wonder if the voluntary sacrifices of our own time, or of urbanized Rome, were not in some way a deliberate preservation of the ancestral and natural forced austerity of late winter.

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/12/surprising-meanings-of-lent-february-and-ash-wednesday/

Yesterday, Wednesday – 02/13/2013, a young lady, an assistant at the Chiropractor’s where I receive weekly therapy, had ashes in her forehead. This incident reminded me of the fact that not just Catholics but many evangelical churches all over the world, did celebrate the ritual called: ASH WEDNESDAY!

Why, may a Bible reader inquire? What is the meaning of it? Is it Biblical? Where does it come from? Whose traditions is this?

Worthy of notice, Ash Wednesday, follows right after the pagan celebration known as: Mardi Gras/ Shove Tuesday/ Carnival. The same organization that strongly advocates: Ash Wednesday, promotes Carnival! Did you get that fact? There would not be any justification for Ash Wednesday liturgy if it were not for the evil of Carnival!

Here are some historical facts:

1)      It is the invention of the Papacy! [Ash Wednesday marks the onset of the Lent, the 40-day period of fasting and abstinence. It is also known as the 'Day of Ashes'. So called because on that day at church the faithful have their foreheads marked with ashes in the shape of a cross.

The name 'Day of Ashes' comes from "Dies Cinerum" in the Roman Missal and is found in the earliest existing copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary. The concept originated by the Roman Catholics somewhere in the 6th century. Though the exact origin of the day is not clear, the custom of marking the head with ashes on this Day is said to have originated during the papacy of Gregory the Great (590-604).
 http://www.theholidayspot.com/ash_wednesday/origin.htm#0f5qd7sv3I5ojyvS.99 

2)      It is Pagan in origin! Like most : “Christian Traditions”, it is not Bible based nor it is practiced by following the example of Christ nor his disciples. It is another merging of Pagan rituals with Bible terminology.

The early Pagan origins of Ash Wednesday

This ritual “imposition of the ashes” is purportedly in imitation of the repentant act of covering oneself in dust and ashes. The marking of believers on Ash Wednesday is done in combination of another extra-biblical routine called “Lent.” Despite Christ's command to his followers to abstain from the practice of disfiguring their faces during fasting, it has become a regular practice. He also told us to wash our faces during a fast.

The practice of putting ashes on one's forehead has been known from ancient times. In the Nordic pagan religion, placing ashes above one's brow was believed to ensure the protection of the Norse god, Odin. This practice spread to Europe during the Vikings conquests. This laying on of ashes was done on Wednesday, the day named for Odin, Odin's Day. Interestingly enough, according to Wikipedia, one of Odin's names is Ygg. The same is Norse for the World Ash. This name Ygg, closely resembles the Vedic name Agni in pronunciation.

The Norse practice which has become known as Ash Wednesday was itself, drawn from the Vedic Indian religion. Ashes were believed to be the seed Agni , the Indian fire god. It is from this name that the Latins used for fire, ignis. It is from this root word that the English language got the words, ignite, igneous and ignition. Agni was said to have the authority to forgive sins. Ashes were also believed to be symbolic for the purifying blood of the Vedic god Shiva, which it is said hadthe power to cleanse sins.

http://www.beaconoftruth.com/ash_wednesday.htm

3)      The Ash Wednesday worship services, has become one of the largest worship services of the year!

“Ash Wednesday (aka Day of Ashes) is the commencement day of the Lenten Season.. Like Lent there is very little documentation designating Ash Wednesday’s actual origin. The practice of using ashes in the Ash Wednesday ceremony derives itself from Old Testament liturgy signifying remorse, mourning and repentance supplemented with prayer and fasting. There are numerous accounts of individuals from the bible using sackcloth (a course clothing typically worn as a sign of mourning and penitence) and ashes during times of lamentation and repentance. The record of Job (Job16:15; Job 42:6), Daniel 9:3 and Jeremiah 6:26 names a few. These Old Testament accounts are the nearest biblical support for the ashes ceremony and no where else in the bible mandates its practice.

The general consensus of most historians and bible scholars is that the use of ashes in the Lenten liturgy began in the late part of the first millennium. The earliest known writings referencing the use of ashes was by an Anglo-Saxon abbot named Aelfric. Written supposedly sometime around the end of the first century. His reference correlated the penance recorded in the bible worthy of the penance they should do at the commencement of the Lenten fast. He further encouraged the practice by telling the story of a man who refused to go to church for the ashes on Ash Wednesday and who a few days after was accidentally killed in a boar hunt (Aelfric, Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, I, 262-266). Different than today, they sprinkled ashes on their heads rather than smudging them on their foreheads. Only later did they begin marking crosses with ashes on women’s foreheads and eventually it became the practice of marking men as well.

As the custom continued as the common practice commencing with the first day of Lent, the name Ash Wednesday, also referenced as the Day of Ashes, became the symbolic name for the day. Today, this ceremony is performed by Catholic churches and many Protestant churches to be mindful of our sinful nature and how our Lord has redeemed us by His accomplishments at Calvary by bringing us to the reconciliation of God. The ashes are typically obtained from the palm branches burnt from the previous Palm Sunday. The ashes are blessed by the cleric and applied to the parishioners foreheads during the Ash Wednesday’s worship services. The ashes will be applied in the sign of the cross or a mere unidentifiable smudge on the forehead. Most parishioners will leave the ashes on their foreheads until it wears off on its own.

The Ash Wednesday worship services has become one of the largest worship services of the year with crowds of many Christians who do not even attend church regularly.

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-history-and-origin-of-ash-wednesday

4)      Holy Wednesday

Wednesday’s namesake is shown here in a 19th century illustration. (Wikimedia Commons)

So there you have it. This year Ash Wednesday falls on February 13, marking the start of Lent and the approach of Easter. In that sentence, without getting on a plane, picking up a trowel, or pushing through any jungle underbrush, you can dig through history from English speakers of today, to ancient Rome, to prehistoric celebrations of the changing seasons, and to the very structure of the solar system.

And I almost forgot: Wednesday itself is of course named for Woden/Wotan/Odin the one-eyed, raven-toting, wolf-accompanied, berzerker leader of the Norse and German gods.

Linguistic archaeology! Tell your friends. http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/12/surprising-meanings-of-lent-february-and-ash-wednesday/

WHAT IS SO WRONG WITH OBSERVING A CHURCH TRADITION? The reader may ask. Therefore what follows is devoted to answering this vital question:

Besides being a Pagan Holiday, it is also a church tradition.  Let us consider what Jesus had to say about that:

“Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:8,9   What was Jesus referring to? Not just purification rituals: washing hands so many times, not touching or mingling with the heathen, ETC. But He was referring to the traditions of the fathers. 

“Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” Mark 7:8 –9

The Apostle Paul had something to say about commandments and doctrines of men:

“Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

Touch not; taste not; handle not;

Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.” Collosians 2:20 – 23.

Much of these traditions hide the true intent of the inventors of it. Adopting pagan holidays to win converts from paganism? Or Pagan zing the Christian faith? Which?

 Had not the Lord warned Israel saying: “When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.” But they did not always listen to him, and did sin exceedingly after the fashion of the heathen: “Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.

And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:

But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.” 2 Chronicles 36:14-16

History would teach us the fearful results of blending pagan traditions with the Christian faith. The result is not  Christian at all!

“The influence of Constantine powerfully contributed to the aid of those church leaders who were intent upon bringing the forms of pagan worship into the Christian church. Gibbon thus places upon record the motives of these men, and the result of their action:”  History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week, 353.5

“The most respectable bishops had persuaded themselves that the ignorant rustics would more cheerfully renounce the superstition of paganism, if they found some resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom of Christianity. The religion of Constantine achieved in less than a century, the final conquest of the Roman Empire: but the victors themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals.” IBID, 354.1

“The body of nominal Christians, which resulted from this strange union of pagan rites with Christian worship, arrogated to itself the title of catholic church, while the true people of God, who resisted these dangerous innovations, were branded as heretics, and cast out of the church.” IBID, 354.2

“There yet exist prodigious disputes about the change of the law, of the Sabbath etc., which all sprung from the false persuasion that Christ committed to the Apostles and Bishops, the charge of inventing new ceremonies which should be essential to salvation. These errors crept into the church at a time (viz., “the dark ages),” when the righteousness of faith was not taught with sufficient clearness. Some maintained that the observance of the Lord’s day was not divinely appointed, but as if it had been, they prescribed respecting holidays, how far it was lawful to work (i.e., what were cases of necessity and mercy). What are controversies of this sort but snares for consciences? For, however they may attempt to harmonize their traditions, truth can never be attained while the opinion of their necessity (or binding obligation) remains.” Confession, Wittemburg Edition, p.28. Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, August 14, 1860, p 97.15

“The Waldenses took the Bible as their only rule of faith, abhorred the idolatry of the papacy, and the main body rejected its traditions and holidays, but kept the seventh-day Sabbath, and used the apostolic mode of baptism. (See “Ancient Churches of Piedmont,” by P. Allix, pp. 152-260) Their old catechism shows that they believed in justification by faith in the grace of Christ alone, and that obedience to the Ten Commandments was the surefruit of living faith:   Facts of Faith, 121.4

CONCLUSION: “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve”. Amen