MySavior
Ash Wednesday opens Lent, the season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving in which Christians prepare for Easter. At church, a minister traces a cross of ashes on each person's forehead: a sign of repentance and a reminder that life is short, often with words from Genesis 3:19 about returning to dust. The ashes are usually made by burning the palms blessed on the previous year's Palm Sunday.
It is kept by Catholics and by many Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist and other Protestant churches. For Catholics it is a day of fasting and of abstinence from meat, though it is not a holy day of obligation. Orthodox churches do not keep Ash Wednesday: their Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, which in 2027 falls on March 15.
Why 46 days before Easter?
Lent recalls the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert. Sundays always celebrate the Resurrection, so they are not counted as fast days: from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday there are 40 fast days and six Sundays, 46 days in all. Counted back from Easter Sunday, that always lands on a Wednesday. Because Easter moves, Ash Wednesday moves with it, between February 4 and March 10. With Easter on March 28, Ash Wednesday 2027 is early in that range.
The day before is Shrove Tuesday, better known as Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday”), the last day of feasting before the fast. The countdown has both days.
When does Lent end?
In the Catholic Church, Lent ends on the evening of Holy Thursday, March 25, when the Easter Triduum begins with the Mass of the Lord's Supper. Many Protestant churches count Lent to Holy Saturday, March 27. Either way, Easter is Sunday, March 28, 2027.
One knock-on effect: the Annunciation, normally March 25, falls in Holy Week or the Easter octave in 2027, so the countdown moves it to Monday, April 5, 2027.
