Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down: Art For Ash Wednesday (PHOTOS)

Happy Ash Wednesday, everyone. For those lapsed Catholics who forgot, today is the beginning of Lent, marking the start of 40 days of fasting and prayer. The holiday gets its name from the ritual of marking a cross of ash on one's forehead in honor of mourning and repentance to God.

Even if you are not Christian, Ash Wednesday is a reminder of the power of ritual and the importance of sacred rites. Of course, leave it to the art world to take a pretty serious tradition and stir things up...

Here are some of our favorite Ash Wednesday-inspired works, from the reverent to the naughty.

Comments

[OceanEric]

05:25 AM on 03/01/2012

"Ash Wednesday - nun by Freemax looks more like Fat Tuesday, and should be deleted. Adelyn is a well done photographic piece. It asks one to meditate and contemplate, which is a lot of what Lent is about; (I can get into Fat Tuesday as well; on Fat Tuesday).

[Valerie B Kaiser MD]

09:03 PM on 02/23/2012

Like the photospread, but before I comment, one little thing. The ashes are made from the burned palms of the prior Palm Sunday, which has significance. Palm Sunday is the week before Easter, or the death (Crucifixtion, documented in one of the photos) and then believed Ressurection of Christ. (Easter). The point is that Christ was welcomed into Jerusalem as, well... whatever your faith says He was, but most definately as a great hero. But He went knowing he was there to die, and had known for 40 days and nights, i.e. LENT. The photo of the towering ashes makes me think of the scripture of Christ saying something to the effect that he was the Temple the pharisees were going to bring down. (remember really those controlled by Rome at the time, the "Jews" did not kill Jesus, so well said by Cecil B. DeMille as far back as the King of Kings.) These photos are not irreverent but different artists interpretations. Well, the sister (not nun--typical mistake) with the cigarette, and um,,,,well see for yourself, one could argue over, but not me, I laugh. Art is the basis of the freedom of speech, but a little backround helps when I see what I see. Perhaps others will see something else.

[OceanEric]

05:33 AM on 02/23/2012

Ash Wednesday by Helen Vaughn is excellent !

[femore]

07:44 PM on 02/22/2012

I find this insulting to print this on a day that is sacred to so many. Some of those pictures are insulting. Why do people deliberately seek out to injure and insult others?? I just don't get it.

[Frderic Lambea]

07:26 PM on 02/22/2012

Usually when Lent begins, i leave Internet. But this year, having more than two thousands messages to read, first I must do it, after let the computers alone, and be ready for Easter. and I will.