ASH
WEDNESDAY
By Ronni Lamont
Suitable
for KS2
Aim
To teach the children how the
name Ash Wednesday came about, and to explore its
significance.
Preparation and materials
- Ash - any sort of finely powdered ash. Strictly speaking this should
be from the Palm crosses from the previous year. A local church may let you
have some, or contact a specialist religious supplier. Otherwise, you could
make ash in a controlled fire - say in a waste bin, outside. Use old paper and
then pulverize the ashes. Then make a paste from the ash. It can be very runny,
like powder paint. You need only a very small amount.
- A palm cross - again, perhaps ask your local church.
- A bag of sugar and a lemon.
Assembly
- Produce the sugar and lemon and ask what favourite food these
traditionally go on - pancakes. When do we eat pancakes? Shrove Tuesday. Why is
it called Shrove Tuesday? Because people used to go to church on that day to be
'shriven'. This old word means that everyone had to confess all the things that
they knew they had done wrong. The priest then blessed them, they went home,
and made pancakes to use up the eggs in the house, ready for
…
- Ash Wednesday, the day after Shrove Tuesday. Ask if anyone knows why
it's called that. Produce the ash, and explain that Ash Wednesday is the first
day of Lent - six weeks of preparing for Easter. Lent is a fast - a time of
eating less well, and praying more. It's also a time of thinking about all the
things that human beings get wrong. People still go to church on Ash Wednesday
to be 'ashed'. Explain that this is an ancient custom, a way of 'acting out'
remembrance of the fact that we do wrong things.
- Ask a child (whose religious tradition is compatible with what is to
come - and with no fringe!) to come up to the front. Dip your thumb into the
ash solution and make the sign of the cross on his or her forehead. The words
to accompany this action, which you can choose whether or not to use, are:
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Turn away
from sin and be faithful to Christ.
If you do use the words, make
sure that you pick the sort of child who isn't going to be fazed by these weird
words! Let everyone have a look at the child's ash mark as he or she returns to
his or her place.
Time for
reflection
In a few moments of silence, ask the children to think about things
they do that they know are wrong. Ask all the children to say 'I'm sorry' out
loud, together, after an appropriate thought from you:
For all the things that I do that
I know I shouldn't,
I'm sorry.
Song
'Go tell it on the mountain'
(Come and Praise, 24)
This assembly was originally
posted in March 2000.
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