I made a joke today.
I was chatting about the use of hash tags on twitter and how that has migrated to face book and other social media to identify and index common themes and topics.
And then I was talking about going to the Ash Wednesday service at church for the traditional imposition of ashes at the beginning of Lent.
And I hadn't eaten much today after a big sugar load last night, so I was a little light-headed.
So, I tweeted that I was going to a contemporary Ash Wednesday service, and, after the imposition, I would be leaving with an Ash tag.
Get it? An Ash tag. Instead of hash tag.
I'll give you a second to recover.
But it's more than a joke.
Many of us are familiar with Ash Wednesday as being the day which begins a time of intentional deprivation, such as fasting, which justifies the excess that we pack in on the preceding Fat Tuesday, more commonly called Mardi Gras. Thanks to Bonnie and Justin I celebrated Mardi Gras with gluttony, mostly hot chocolate chip cookies. And their children ran through the house naked. But that's pretty much an every night kind of thing at the Peavies. Not exactly Bourbon Street. But it was excessively fun, so it will do for this year.
Ash Wednesday actually marks the beginning of Lent, a period of forty days prior to Easter Sunday, excluding interim Sundays. In Church tradition, Lent is a time of repentance, reflection and preparation. Ash Wednesday emphasizes the recognition of our sinfulness and humanity, our repentance, and God's perfecting forgiveness.
So, all over the world, in all kinds of churches, praying in all kinds of languages, we walk to the altar and stand or kneel in front of a pastor or priest, who finger paints the mark of the cross with ashes on our foreheads, in a now ancient remembrance of our common plight.
The Ash Tag looks a little different than the hash tag.
+ForgivenSinner
And we remember who we are supposed to be following.
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Great concept!
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