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Lent
Ash Wednesday
Also called: The Beginning of Lent, Dies Cinerum (Latin)
18 February 2026
CatholicAnglicanLutheranMethodistPresbyterian
Ash Wednesday is the startling start of Lent — you may see people with a grey cross on their foreheads heading to church on a random Wednesday in February or March. The ashes come from burned palm branches from the previous year's Palm Sunday, and the words remind us that life is short.
Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, and others use the day to begin 40 days of prayer, fasting, or giving something up before Easter. Eden's directory includes retreat centres across the UK that run Lent courses and quiet days.
At a glance
- Type
- major feast
- Date type
- Moveable (changes with Easter)
- Regions
- Global
- Themes
- Penitence & Fasting, Mortality, Covenant
- Liturgical colour
- Purple/Violet
Common questions
Ash Wednesday is observed on 18 February 2026. Moveable feasts shift each year; fixed feasts stay on the same calendar date.
The first day of Lent in Western Christianity, marked by the imposition of ashes on the forehead in the shape of a cross, accompanied by the words "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). The ashes are traditionally made from palm branches burned from the previous year's Palm Sunday. Ash Wednesday is one of two required days of fasting and abstinence in Catholic p
It is associated with Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian. It falls in the Lent season of the liturgical year.