I love our Vice President...but what did he do to his head?

[Thickasabrick]

Last night....head was fine



Here's a pic from today:



I wonder if he fell or something?

[Island Blue]

1. It's Ash Wednesday. He's Catholic.

[Triana]

14. So...Catholics play Cinderella on Ash Wednesday?

Splain, pls?

I am not Catholic and know nothing of this stuff. Why do they put ashes on their head?

(truely ignorant here, sorry)

[elleng]

20. I'm surprised at your true ignorance!

fyi:

http://www.orlutheran.com/html/ash.html

[Triana]

34. thank you for the info

I probably read this waaaaay back when I was a kid but have long-since forgotten (spiritual but not religious sort here). I honestly don't keep up with all this stuff!

Thanks. :)

[elleng]

44. But where did you grow up?

Where are you from? THATS the real surprise.

[Triana]

52. michigan, actually...

...like I said, my parents probably made me read about this stuff as a kid but - I didn't retain any of it. Not being religious, I just haven't paid attention since. Most of it, I've forgotten - other than knowing there's an Ash Wednesday, Lent, Easter, etc. every year. Lent and Easter I know about. Ash Wednesday - I didn't. Totally forgot - and have to admit I've never seen anyone walking round with a sooty spot on their forehead on that day - but maybe haven't paid much attention.

EDIT: I'm just one of those damn godless heathens, I guess! LOL!

[elleng]

56. I'm agnostic, (Jewish) always have been,

grew up in New York. I find it SO difficult to believe Americans don't meet, attend school with, work with Catholics and other Christians who observe such important holy days!

NOT your fault! just STUNNING!

[Divine Discontent]

58. grew up in OH, I had no idea either! Don't know many Catholics

I'm Christian and all, but don't know many personally that do the ash thing on their forehead, and I have some Catholic friends. I guess they're not 'practicing' Catholics, or, this isn't something all Catholics do.

[Triana]

84. I know some Catholics too - but never saw them with the ash thing either..

..thus my reaction: "Huh?" Ah well. Learned something new!

[HughMoran]

36. lololololol!!!

I was wondering.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. It's Ash Wednesday. He's Catholic.

[cbayer]

3. He's catholic. It's Ash Wednesday.

:rofl:

My husband thought he had a skin cancer removed.

[Thickasabrick]

11. Thank you for that....I just don't keep up with those holidays like

I should.

[cbayer]

12. Methinks you were joshing us.

:rofl:

[Thickasabrick]

15. I really wasn't - I was actually concerned about somebody hitting

him. LOL...oh well, at least he's ok. : )

[Muttocracy]

76. before I saw the Ash Wed. stuff I was thinking it was an ink smear

which is something *I* would do (write something with a pen, ink on finger, scratch forehead) and I was thinking, why doesn't anyone at this meeting TELL him? Are they trying to get him embarrassed?

(for the record, I'm an atheist, didn't go to church as a kid, but lived in Baptist/Presbyterian land and could count the Jewish, Catholic, and Hindu families I knew growing up on one hand)

[blockhead]

4. ash wednesday

[Thickasabrick]

5. LOL....I am so not catholic. - Thanks from this heathen!!!

[ColbertWatcher]

6. He's Catholic; it's Ash Wednesday. n/t

[waiting for hope]

7. If you ever had the chance to

walk around New Orleans on Ash Wednesday, you would think that everyone there is Catholic... or just about. ;)

[Ilsa]

49. Probably alot of people seeking forgiveness the day after Mardi Gras. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. As others have pointed out, Ash Wednesday, and I am not catholic

[MADem]

9. He's using his forehead as a visible expression of his faith.

Every "bad Catholic" who skipped the Mass will then be inclined to run to the nearest ashtray and "make it happen" so they won't be tut-tutted.

[defendandprotect]

53. Foreheads are important to "god" . . .or is it simple advertising . . .???

:think:

[MADem]

57. Advertising--he's telling all of the Catholic voters that he's a "good" Catholic. nt

[Maru Kitteh]

67. Or just perhaps, it's actually meaningful to him.

Many good and intelligent people find measures of comfort and meaning from their faith. Your President is one of them.

[MADem]

69. Could be. But he could have always gone to the evening mass after work.

The ostentatious and obvious display never hurts when trying to retain a sometimes problematic demographic, the campaign never ends.

That's just political reality.

[Maru Kitteh]

78. I understand that may have made you more comfortable

Perhaps that was not his first concern. Why exactly would you presume to know what mass times were convenient and/or available to him?

Perhaps you might just allow that Joe Biden, as a man of faith, is likely to have a higher degree of comfort with a display of faith, than, say ---- yourself.

Will you assume nefarious intentions if he wears green on St. Patty's? If he lights a firecracker on the 4th of July?

[MADem]

81. You understand nothing. You don't even know what, if any religion, I practice.

But you don't hesitate to ASSUME the worst. Not terribly Christian of you, is that? And certainly, by your response to me, I can deduce that you're not Jesuit educated, or you slept through your lessons, otherwise you'd have some of those swell logical skills they hammer into even the most unwilling student.

Joe Biden may be a man of faith, but he is also a man of opportunity. He knows all about 'appearance.' Those hair plugs and teeth, and the man tan, the impeccably tailored suits, the fine shoes, the silk ties, should make even the most clueless among us realize that. He "gets" the importance of imagery.

Why do you assume that I regard his intentions as "nefarious?" That's a pretty, well, stupid assumption, frankly, for you to make.

I think Joe Biden is a smart, sharp, astute, quick-witted politician who knows how to reach his base and doesn't miss a fucking trick.

And guess what else? I don't think there's anything WRONG with that.

Good grief. You need to stop reading more into things than what people actually say. You need to stop creating "enemies" when people don't have them.

If you don't know, you should ask, not accuse. You'll be happier if you do.

[Taverner]

10. Ash Wednesday

[ClusterFreak]

13. I haven't even looked at the other replies yet.

But methinks that the OP might be doing something like this right about now...:yoiks: :hide:

[Thickasabrick]

16. Pretty much.....

[onehandle]

17. My favorite Catholic ritual as a kid. nt

[Canuckistanian]

18. I'm all for expression of faith

But for a public figure to display ritual religious markings is a bit.... unusual.

Could he not have had his little "ceremony" and just wiped it off before going before the cameras?

[DemBones DemBones]

19. The ashes are left on as a reminder of

penitence and mortality. And BTW do you oppose Hindus wearing bindhi? Or Sikhs wearing turbans? Muslim women wearing the hijab?

[Canuckistanian]

28. Then why didn't we ever see that mark on JFK?

Wasn't he Catholic? What about the present Senator Kennedy? Or even (shudder) Rick Santorum?

You can't tell me this is "common practice"

[tyedyeto]

29. Could be that they go to a mass later in the day n/t

[DemBones DemBones]

32. It IS common practice and if you don't see a Catholic

wearing ashes, it probably means they went to an evening Mass. People go to the Mass that's most convenient for them so I'd think Biden had reasons for going to an early Mass. My parish had five Masses today, the last one at 7:30 p.m. and they were probably all full.

[fed_up_mother]

35. This is extremely common practice in the more Catholic areas of the country

Good for Joe not hiding his faith, and imo, we need more people like him willing to step up and proclaim their faith. I'm so tired of the right wing claiming that territory all for themselves.

[Posteritatis]

64. JFK predates ubiquitous television

Kennedy and Santorum are also going to be further from the spotlight due to their lower profile. A modern president and/or VP are going to be much, much more exposed to that sort of thing than a senator who's just one out of a hundred, or a president who predates the extent of the modern news cycle.

And yeah, I can tell you it's "common practice," because it is common practice.

[SoCalDem]

77. and JFK may have been a "casual" Catholie.. In many families, it's MOM

who drags the kids to mass every holiday and sunday, while Dad finds other things to do..

and back when JFK was president, he DOWNPLAYED the obvious piety, because of the hub-bub that was raised during the campaign..

and until then, and after..until Jimmy carter made it a big deal, MOST people couldn't have cared less about the religion of the president or any candidate for that matter..

Our own Jimmy Carter ushered in the hyper-religiosity that we suffer from these days:(

[Maru Kitteh]

68. It's extremely common.

[elleng]

22. No religious Canuk politicians????

.

[Canuckistanian]

25. No. I've never seen this on any Canadian politician

And we've got one of the most Catholic leaderships in the world. Most of politicians are from Quebec, who are nearly 100% Catholic in declared faith.

But then again, we make a point of not emphasizing our religions in public.

[DemBones DemBones]

38. So there are no Muslims wearing hijabs in Canada?

No Sikhs in turbans? No Hindus with bindhi on their foreheads?

[Canuckistanian]

45. Yes, there are

But in this "liberal" country, there is a discomfort even with these displays.

There was a major scandal a few decades ago with our Canadian Legion (our version of VFW) banning Sikhs from wearing turbans on their premises because they were considered "hats".

Now, I'm not agreeing with that sentiment, but we're still largely an atheist society, uncomfortable with wearing our religions on our sleeves like that.

And that goes for Sikhism as well as Catholicism.

[Posteritatis]

65. "Most politicians are from Quebec?" Uhhh, whatever (nt)

[Posteritatis]

63. Once you get past the municipal level...

Really open religiosity in Canadian politicians is extremely rare, which is doubly odd because Canada isn't a secular country at all, at least on paper.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure Catholicism is vastly more widespread here than in the US (in terms of percentages if not raw numbers!), so things like Ash Wednesday are much more likely to be taken for granted. We don't have the whole complex about Catholics in high office that the US had for much of its history.

The current crop of conservatives are nearly silent about religion by American standards, but by Canadian standards are howling it from the rooftops at earsplitting volume. One of the reasons people are so uncomfortable with the new Conservative Party is that they actually did try to bring their religion into politics as a campaign point a few times, which was jarring in a country that has trouble telling what any particular prime minister's denomination is without going to Google.

[tyedyeto]

23. Wiping 'it' off is a sign of disrespect in the Catholic community. n/t

[falcon97]

43. We were taught growing up

to let the ashes remain on our foreheads because they had been blessed.

[jkshaw]

55. Why should he?

[tyedyeto]

21. Having never lived in a 'Catholic' community...

I first saw the ashes on the forehead in 2002. Wondered about it but never really gave it much thought. In the years since, I have become friends with Catholics who proudly 'wear' the ashes as a sign of the beginning of Lent.

In my 56 years of life, I now can realize what it means to those who are faithful Catholics. I may not agree with them on all issues but I am more understanding of their viewpoints..

[DemBones DemBones]

24. In the Bible, penitents wore sackcloth and put

ashes on their heads. Today, the priest makes a cross (symbol of hope and Resurrection) on your forehead with the ashes while saying "Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return," reminding us of our mortality. That they are palm ashes ties us back to Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Passion of the Christ (not just a movie) so that we are reminded that Palm Sunday and Easter will come again. The ashes actually are made from last Palm Sunday's palms. We also do penance by not eating meat and fasting on Ash Wednesday.

[Thickasabrick]

26. Thank you!! eom

[undeterred]

27. Are you really that clueless?

This happens every year, unless you are living in a cave.

[Thickasabrick]

30. No.....I guess I just live and work around a bunch of "heathens"....I

live in the South and Catholics are greatly outnumbered here.

[DemBones DemBones]

37. I live in the South, too, and a doctor from my parish

was actually stopped by the police on Ash Wednesday and asked what was on his forehead! His son was with him in the car and he had served as an altar boy at the Mass and was still in his white robe so they wanted to know what was up with that, too. And that's in a town with over 800 Catholic families. :shrug:

[Thickasabrick]

41. Yea - it's pretty different down here. I don't think I've seen a Catholic

church around me and I've lived here 5 years....of course - I wasn't looking for one either.

[Rhythm]

60. I don't know where the parish closest to you would be... there are numerous RCC's in the city

I'm agnostic, but have numerous Catholic friends, and have even gone to mass at a couple of the older Catholic Churches, if only to appreciate the acoustics.

[Rhythm]

59. I grew up in Charlotte, and never saw this until i moved north

Living in upstate NY was the first time that i saw people walking around with the ashen cross-marks. Then again, there was a much larger percentage of Catholics in the area, too, than i had encountered in Charlotte.

I live in Morgantown WV now, and there are a surprising number of Catholics as well, and i found it fascinating seeing how many students on the downtown WVU campus had attended the assorted masses (according to the campus newspaper, they were being held every 2 hours, from 8:30am-8:30pm) at the campus RCC and returned to classes so marked.

[Thickasabrick]

72. I don't get down into Charlotte very often even though it's only

30 miles away. It seems like the predominant religions around here are Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians....those are the churches I've noticed anyway. That's interesting about WV - I would have thought it would be predominantly Baptist or Church of Christ.

[Rhythm]

75. If i understand the history of north-central WV correctly...

Many of the Italian families here descend from the the Italian immigrants brought in at the end of the 19th century as strike-breakers in the steel mills and underground coal mines.

There's also a sizable number of Russian Orthodox folks here... haven't found the 'why' on that yet, but i'm interested in doing so.

[UTUSN]

31. Uh, he had ASHES put on his forehead?!1 n/t

[DemBones DemBones]

33. Yes, like Catholics around the world. See

post 24 for an explanation.

[Control-Z]

39. ...

:rofl: Boy do I feel dumb. I wondered and worried about him too, after I saw a news clip of him this morning.

Even though I have heard of the practice, in all my life I have never actually seen anyone with the ashes on the head.

[Thickasabrick]

42. Bless you for speaking up!! I was really hoping I wasn't the only

one that wondered about this. :)

[falcon97]

47. In Catholic school we studied

other religious orthodoxies, both Christian and non-Christian. But, I didn't *really* realize that the rest of the U.S. wasn't entirely Catholic until college at good 'ol state U!

[rainbow4321]

51. It didn't happen today but last year someone from our hospital's chapel

came to our clinic and offered ashes both to employees and patients who were out in the waiting room. The employees kept the ashes on for the rest of the workday..I know they appreciated the chapel's gesture even though most had already been talking about going to church that night.

[emmadoggy]

62. Same here.

Have never seen it. I hadn't seen the picture before this thread, but I would have had no clue what it was either.

Edited to add: I grew up in a small town with a fairly high percentage of Catholics and the town I now live in also has a good share of Catholics. I guess I just don't get out much - or at least not on Ash Wednesday! Actually, another explanation could also be that these are very small towns and I don't think the churches here have several Masses all day long, probably only a couple, later in the day, which would explain not seeing people with the ashes also.

[Political Heretic]

74. I hadn't either! You're not the only one.

[madamesilverspurs]

40. Not just Catholics...

We did this in the Episcopal church when I was a kid.

[Ilsa]

50. Alot of Lutherans, also. nt

[jsamuel]

61. still do

[ellie]

46. That is really funny that

you should ask. I am Catholic, non practicing, and my husband grew up without any religion. I mentioned that Tuesday was Mardi Gras and then Lent would start the next day. He didn't know what Lent was and we have been together for 15 years and it never came up! I told him all about it but forgot about the ashes on the forehead.

[bigtree]

48. I know this, but I ALWAYS forget

Even after reading a post on it this morning I found myself staring and wondering at the smudge on a lady's forehead before I remembered again.

[Stephanie]

54. At work today I heard this converstation on the elevator

Int'l Man to Woman: Is it Jewish day?

Woman: No, it's Catholic day. It's Ash Wednesday for Roman Catholics.

Cute because the question was so sincere and guileless.

[SmileyRose]

66. Where did the DUers all concerned about the sacredness of Jindal's heritage go?

Sorry, I know that's obtuse. Nothing personal to the OP, just scratching my head on how a comment about the white catholic guy doesn't elicit the same fervor from the Jindal folks.

[lynne]

70. Ash Wednesday is not exclusive to Catholics, I'm Methodist and attend Ash Wednesday services -

- complete with the ash cross on my forehead.

[Thickasabrick]

73. I grew up in a Methodist Church and we never had that....I would

have definitely remembered that.

[lynne]

85. Methodists began doing Ash Wednesday services about 15-20 years ago -

- we also do Maundy Thursday services with foot washing as well as Good Friday services.

[Control-Z]

87. Foot washing?

You made that up!

[Thickasabrick]

88. Wow....15 years ago was about the time I stopped going. Thanks

for the heads up in case I decide to visit again. I would have thought I was in the wrong church!

[Sheepshank]

71. hu? I was even christened

Catholic at one point int my life and didn't know this ittle tid bit. I thought perhaps Biden just finally figured he coulda had a V8, and was really upset that he just figured that out.

[Name removed]

79. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

89. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[KakistocracyHater]

80. that "dust" thing

"For dust you are and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). It really means spirit, but Chambers etymology says from Old English in 725 cognate with Old High German tunst/tunist "storm, breath" Modern German "mist vapor", from Proto-Germanic dunstu-z cognate with Sanskrit dhvansati "he vanishes".

Since Ash Wednesday first dates to the Old English 700s it gives a peek into a very old mindset. It seems connected to spirit, with Genesis telling the story of how Adam was 'inspired' by God, so to speak; the connection to storms is interesting.

[Truth2Tell]

82. You think that's bad? Check out this photo from later in the day...

[Vickers]

83. Git a job you goddam chia hippie!

:spank:

[olegramps]

86. Observace of Ash Wednesday is not limited to Catholics.

These denominations observe Ash Wednesday:
These Christian denominations are among those that mark Ash Wednesday by holding a service of worship or Mass:

African Methodist Episcopal Church
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
Anglican/Episcopal churches (excepting most Sydney Diocese churches)
Individual Baptist churches may hold a service
Church of God (Anderson)
Church of the Nazarene
Some congregations of Community of Christ
Some Free Churches
The Liberal Catholic Church
Lutheran churches
Old Catholic Church
Reformed churches (Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), etc.)
Roman Catholic Church
United Methodist churches
Wesleyan churches