Tuesday (March 4, 2014) was known as “ Fat Tuesday, ” the peak of the Mardi Gras celebration, and Wednesday (March 5, 2014) was “ Ash Wednesday. ” One can figure out that Fat Tuesday always precedes Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of “ Lent. ” What are these days? Can one celebrate these days as days of worship to God?
What is Ash Wednesday? Ash Wednesday is “the first day of Lent, so-called from the ceremony of putting ashes on the forehead as a sign of penitence. The ash is from palms, which are blessed on Palm Sunday of the previous year” (New Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus of the English Language, p. 54). What is Lent? Lent is “(in Roman Catholic and some other Western Christian Churches) the period of fasting and penitence during the forty weekdays between Ash Wednesday and Easter Eve, recalling Christ’s forty days in the wilderness” (Ibid., p. 566). In the Orthodox Eastern Churches, they fast for an additional week until Orthodox Easter. Nonetheless, Fat Tuesday received its name as the day before the forty days of fasting and filled with riotous, gratuitous and gluttonous living.
Can one celebrate Ash Wednesday and Lent as days of worship to God? What would be wrong with showing additional faith to God by also participating in these rituals? God has not authorized us to do so. Nowhere in the Bible has He commanded us to place ash on our foreheads as a sign of penitence. Nowhere has He charged us to fast for a specific forty days. Nowhere has He authorized us to fast in recognition of the Lord’s fasting in the wilderness, as recorded in Matthew 4. Jesus said,
But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. (Matt. 6:17-18).
Jesus states when we fast, it is not a public outward expression or ritual, but rather, it is to be an inward, secret expression. Paul said it best in Galatians 4:10-11, “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” The Galatians were binding certain traditions and ceremonies, especially those back under the Jewish law. Therefore, Paul was fearful that holding such would actually get in the way of serving Christ properly. Jesus gives an example in Matthew 15. Certain scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus and questioned His disciples not following the ritual of washing their hands before eating bread. “But he answered and said unto them, ‘Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?’” (Matthew 15:3). He later says, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9).
God has authorized exactly what mode and method of worship by which we are to follow. Any other way, such as the observance of Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday or Lent that God has not authorized, would be contrary to the doctrine of Christ and is sinful (2 John 1:9).