By Mercury staff
Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent, the most solemn season in the church’s liturgical calendar that ends with Holy Week and Easter Sunday.
Area Christians marked the occasion by performing Penance and receiving a mark of the cross in ashes on their foreheads. The ashes are traditionally made by burning the palms left over from the Palm Sunday celebration of the year before and are a symbol of repentance. They are also a symbol of the dust of the earth from which Christians believe they were made by God.
Christians are also encouraged at this time to sacrifice something for the period of Lent.
This year Lent ends on March 31, Easter Sunday.
This Ash Wednesday was the last celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI, who presided over services in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Benedict, who is 85, announced his resignation from the papacy on Monday.