a different question about Biden's smudge

[Enrique]

how come so many of us, myself included, don't know about this tradition? Ash Wednesday happens every year, and Catholics are not rare, including public ones.

Is it normally less noticeable? Did Biden's priest slip and give him an extra large helping of ashes, enough that it shows up on TV where normally it wouldn't?

[KT2000]

1. grew up in Seattle

and never remember seeing that but when I lived in Wash. DC I saw it on many people on Ash Wednesday.

[BuyingThyme]

2. It's always been about the same from my perspective.

[Syrinx]

3. I remember seeing Robert Novak with a big ol' smudge on his head on CNN

I thought someone had bruised his noggin, until he explained.

There are plenty of Catholics around here, though not nearly as many as Baptists, and I don't remember ever seeing anyone with ashes on their head like that, in "real life."

[LuvNewcastle]

4. A lot of people

wipe the ashes off when they leave the church.

[orleans]

5. they'd better not let god catch them doing that! n/t

[flobee1]

6. LOL

My mother used to tell me the same thing when I was little

[havocmom]

24. I know someone who would leave church and take a nap

Always managed to rub the ash off on pillow while asleep. Every darned year!

[Berry Cool]

7. Some Protestant churches even give out ashes now.

Depends on where you go.

[trof]

23. Episcopalians do. At Miz t.'s church, anyway.

[Raven]

8. The priest uses his thumb...so if it's a big thumb you get a big smudge.

Also, the priest says "Remember, Man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return."

[Ocracoker16]

13. The priest who did mine has a huge thumb

I went home and my parents immediately commented on the fact that it appeared that my church was definitely not stingy with the ashes. Mine looked like a big dot, but other people had a more well defined cross.

[Tesha]

21. One might wonder where that priest's big thumb has been, though ;-) (NT)

[TexasProgresive]

9. I have both received and given ashes on Ash Wednesday

The ashes are from burned palm leaves of the Palm Sunday a year before. Each person coming up has the ashes placed on their forehead in a cross by the priest, deacon, lay minister using their thumb or finger. Often the crosses look more like a smudge. The words, "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return." are said. This whole thing is to remind us of our mortality.

I wouldn't make anything about Joe having a big or little smudge of ashes since it is really difficult to control this stuff. Now if there is a video of the priest dumping the whole dish of ashes on Joe - then yes - I would say the priest is making a statement.

[ThomWV]

10. From back when I was a kid as I recall the smudge was usually gone by about noon.

It isn't like they take an indelible marker and smack you in the head with it, its just a spot of dirt and wears off pretty quick.

By the way, its been 40 years since I set foot in a Catholic Church and I wouldn't have been there then except my sister was getting married.

[GinaMaria]

11. I remember that too but I wonder if that has to do with being a kid?

Running around, sweating it off. IIRC adults had their smudges all day long. I saw a lot of smudges yesterday and they were very obvious and pretty big. :shrug: Who knows? Maybe smudges have gotten bigger? In this economy, that's a surprise.

[ThomWV]

12. Increased carbon dioxide has led directly to smudgier plams possibly?

Fucking global warming, its everywhere!

[Hubert Flottz]

18. Smudge not as ye shall be smudged...

I had a smudge on my forehead yesterday afternoon when I came in the house from burning some yard waste...could that have been a "sign?"

I think the larger smudges may indeed be a "sign" of inflation gone wild...or maybe a "Sign" that your Dollar ain't worth a Dime anymore?

[calico1]

26. Not everyone gets theirs early in the morning.

One guy in my office went at lunchtime so he still had the smudge mark when it was time to go home.

[Midlodemocrat]

14. A lot of people get their Ashes at an evening service, and then go home.

Which is why you don't see a lot of folks around with Ashes on their foreheads.

[seabeyond]

15. i saw a smudge on women in amarillo texas, way majority baptist. so

was fun seeing a catholic amongst the crowd

i have always seen it here and there, though not a lot

[spanone]

16. it's normal been going on forever

[shadowknows69]

17. We did it in our methodist church when I was younger

[La Lioness Priyanka]

19. you didnt know about ash wednesday?

[sweetpotato]

20. We don't know about it because it has to do with those "awful Papists"

Its one of those Roman Catholic traditions that was considered a bit *showy* by early Protestants. And considering that a lot of fundie churches consider the RC Church the Whore of Babylon - must do away with all Papist traditions.

[ThomWV]

22. That's OK, we weren't allowed to read your bible for fear we'd misinterpret it.

[undeterred]

25. Why don't you know?

I've known about this my entire life, and I am not Catholic. But Christians in other traditions use the ashes also, although there is sometimes a choice between having a mark on the forehead, the hand, or not at all.