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This series was conceived as a haven where folks can drop in to share conversation, ideas, weather reports, and music. Feel free to leave a note, comment, picture, or tune. As always the diarist gets to sleep in, and may show up long after the post is published. So you know, it's a feature, not a bug.
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Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, also known to Mardi Gras revelers as Fat Tuesday.
Now, for some history about the origins of this day as Ash Wednesday:
Jesus and his disciples were observant Jews. As such, they observed the Passover Seder, which became the original Last Supper.
In modern times, that solemn Jewish observance was adopted and transformed by Pagan and Christian traditions.
The day became Fat Tuesday, and instead of bitter herbs and unleavened bread, the last meal before Lent has become a high calorie--and fattening--pancake supper.
Today is Ash Wednesday. This day is marked as the first day of Lent, when Jesus went into the wilderness to fast and pray for forty days.
The minister or priest smudging ashes on the head is done a reminder of one’s mortality, and a sign of humble sorrow and penance for sins, both of commission and omission. The ceremony arises from the admonition in Genesis 3:18, quoted in the header of this diary. Notice the Bible uses the phrase, “Dust to dust.” That, and similar phrasing, is found in several Bible verses. Nowhere in the Bible will one find the phrase, “Ashes to ashes.” However, it is both a theological and scientific fact that there is little difference between dust and ashes.
For all intent and purpose, ashes are synonymous with the “dust” mentioned several times in the Bible. It’s the state to which we will all eventually return. That will happen in a Really Big Way when the sun goes nova in about five billion years.
In the Christian tradition, Ash Wednesday is observed by the imposition (or application) of a smudge of ashes on the forehead of the faithful. The use of ashes as a symbol of penance began as a simple matter of private devotion. The penitent would have smeared his or her own head with ashes as a publicly visible sign of confession and penitence for sinful transgressions. Later, it became part of an official church rite for reconciling public penitence. In this context, ashes on the penitent’s head served as a visible reminder for fellow Christians to pray for the sinner, to confess, and do penance for their own sins. Over time, the use of ashes expanded into into a formal rite, marking the beginning the penitential season of Lent, on Ash Wednesday.
The ashes used for Ash Wednesday ceremonies are the burned remains of palm leaves used in the observation of Palm Sunday the year before.
The origins of Ash Wednesday are debated, but most historians attribute the ceremony to Pope Gregory I, aka Saint Gregory the Great. Ol’ Greg began the Ash Wednesday tradition in the late 6th Century. He is also famous for the Gregorian Chants which bear his name.
Smudging ashes on the head as a form of penance for sin began in the Anglo-Saxon Church sometime in the 10th century. The Synod of Benevento of 1091 made the practice official in the Western churches.
In America, the Anglican Church has become the Episcopal Church, where the phrase, “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” first appears in the 1662 version of the Book of Common Prayer as part of the liturgy for burial of the dead.
End of history lesson, so on to some music for this Ash Wednesday…..
The symbolism of ashes has been the inspiration for many songs and poems about ashes. The Grateful Dead were no exceptions. Robert Hunter was a very spiritual guy. He wove signs of his faith into many of the lyrics he wrote for the Grateful Dead. Jerry Garcia transformed Hunter’s poetic imagery into music.
The visual imagery in this official Grateful Dead music video is prescient and timely, given the current state of political turmoil and danger we all face in these perilous times.
Who knew Jerry Garcia was into bluegrass? This is Jerry with Vassar Clements and a fine acoustic bluegrass band:
This is an open thread. Get your cup of favorite morning beverage and snack, pull up a chair and join us. The floor is open for jokes, stories, complaints, songs, and travelogues. What’s on your mind this morning?