For Roman Catholics, this is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the season of austerity leading to the celebration of Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Easter. On this day the celebrant of the rite marks crosses of black ash on the third eye chakras of the faithful to remind them of the vanity of all worldly pleasures, and ask them to turn inward to cleanse the soul of all impurities in the weeks before the solemn rites of sacrifice and redemption are enacted. Ash Wednesday is yet another Christian adaptation of an earlier festival: the Adonia, a time of mourning for the Syrian demigod Tammuz, whose rites were observed at this time all over the eastern Mediterranean, especially at Byblos and the other major cities of Syria.
from the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst
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