Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent, the six weeks of penitence before Easter. It is celebrated with a special service, at which churchgoers receive ash on their foreheads, prepared by burning palm crosses from the previous year's Palm Sunday. As the priest places the ashes on each person´s forehead, s/he says the words, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

So what´s behind this? In preparation for Easter, Lent is a time to be honest with ourselves and with our God. So on Ash Wednesday we think about where we have failed, where we have been hypocritical - saying one thing and doing another. The ashes are there as a kind of public statement, that those who receive them are prepared to make a commitment to try to live their lives more honestly and truthfully.

And it´s not easy: it is often so much easier to pretend, to go along with the crowd, to play act. It is, after all, from the language of the Greek theatre that the word "hypocrisy" was derived.