Christians across the globe on Wednesday March 5 entered the lent season in preparation for the Easter celebrations. The day is called Ash Wednesday.
The lent is a 40-day period of sacrifice, prayer, fasting, penance, and almsgiving leading up to Easter. It reflects the 40 days and 40 nights Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, spent fasting in the desert.
Easter, which marks the death and the resurrection of Jesus, will be celebrated on April 20 this year. Other key events preceding Easter celebration are Palm Sunday April 13 and Good Friday April 18.
On Ash Wednesday, Christians, particularly those of the Orthodox bloc, attend church services to receive ashes on their foreheads in the shape of a cross.
The ashes are from burnt palms of the palm Sunday of the previous years.
Lent changes date each year but its significance remains unchanged.
In the Roman Catholic Church, Lent ends on Holy Thursday (April 17) while for the Protestant denominations, it ends on Holy Saturday (April 19).