Anthropological link between bindi and Wednesday ashes?

[jjimm]

It being Ash Wednesday, a lot of people here in Dublin are walking round with ashes on their foreheads, either in the form of a cross or a dot.

Both my Indian colleague and I have just commented how similar the practice is to that of the bindi in Hinduism, i.e. powdered pigmented substance applied by priest to the forehead in a place of worship to mark devotion.

Could there be a historical link, or is it just a coincidence?

[jjimm]

Bump?

[yojimbo]

It’s meant to be a cross. The dot is just lazy priests.

From

Keeping the mark
At some churches the worshippers leave with the mark still on their forehead so that they carry the sign of the cross out into the world.

At other churches the service ends with the ashes being washed off as a sign that the participants have been cleansed of their sins.

I’ve never heard of getting it washed off. We Irish obviously like wearing our devotion on our foreheads.

as to what it means

Death comes to everyone
They should be sad for their sins
They must change themselves for the better
God made the first human being by breathing life into dust, and without God, human beings are nothing more than dust and ashes
It’s also a reminder of the mark of the cross made at baptism
The phrase often used when the ashes are administered reminds Christians of the doctrine of original sin.
The cross of ashes may symbolise the way Christ’s sacrifice on the cross as atonement for sin replaces the Old Testament tradition of making burnt offerings to atone for sin.
Where the ashes come from
The ashes used on Ash Wednesday are made by burning the palm crosses that were blessed on the previous Palm Sunday.

[yojimbo]

Doh! http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/ashwednesday.shtml