# Non-Catholics: How important is Ash Wednesday?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-catholics-how-important-is-ash-wednesday/436654>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 7, 2008, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-catholics-how-important-is-ash-wednesday/436654 "2008-02-07T06:07:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-catholics-how-important-is-ash-wednesday/436654/41 "2008-02-09T15:08:29Z")

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Evangelical Protestant here.

This city is quite Catholic, so it’s all but impossible for someone 'round here to not have exposure to Catholicism (especially since local restaurants start heavily advertising “Lenten Specials” on the radio this time of year). So I’m quite familiar with Ash Wednesday and its significance.

As for my church’s attitude toward the day - our minister _might_ retroactively mention it in passing this Sunday. Then again, he probably won’t.

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**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-catholics-how-important-is-ash-wednesday/436654/42 "2008-02-09T15:17:01Z")

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I grew up United and for us Shrove Tuesday was an excuse to eat pancakes and nothing more. Nobody gave a shit about Ash Wednesday either (at least not in our church). The Sunday before or the Sunday after (can’t remember) we’d get the usual bible story but that was about the extent of it.

As an anti theist, now it’s just something religious that makes me cringe.

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