Ash Wednesday is one of the most popular and important holy days in the liturgical calendar. Ash Wednesday opens Lent (observed forty days - not counting Sundays), a season of fasting and prayer.
The practice includes the wearing of ashes on the head. The ashes symbolize the dust from which God made us. As the priest applies the ashes to a person's forehead, he speaks the words: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
The general point is that ashes resemble death and Lent is the period where we prepare for Christ’s death.
They’re also an admission of guilt and a plea for forgiveness. Wearing the ashes is supposed to show that we are sorry for our sins ahead of the holy period of Easter.
The Catholic law of abstinence dictates that Catholics aged 14 and older refrain from meat on Fridays altogether, and on Ash Wednesday.
Additionally, Catholics aged 18 to 59 should fast on both Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, defined by the Roman Catholic church as consuming only one full meal, or two smaller meals.
Learn more about the Catholic holidays dates in 2017 year at Calendar-12.com.