Editing Ash Wednesday (section)

==Dates==
{{Further|Lenten calendar}}
{{Lent_calendar.svg}}
Ash Wednesday is exactly 46 days before Easter Sunday, a [[moveable feast]] [[Computus|based on the cycles of the moon]]. The earliest date Ash Wednesday can occur is 4 February (which is only possible during a common year with Easter Sunday on 22 March), which happened in 1598, 1693, 1761, and 1818 and will next occur in 2285.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/easter.php |title=Dates of Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday |access-date=29 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130102212630/http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/easter.php |archive-date=2 January 2013 }}</ref> The latest date Ash Wednesday can occur is 10 March (when Easter Sunday falls on 25 April) which occurred in 1666, 1734, 1886 and 1943 and will next occur in 2038.

Since the introduction of the [[Gregorian calendar]] in 1582, Ash Wednesday has never occurred on a Leap Year Day (29 February) but it will do so for the first time in 2096. The only other years of the third millennium that will have Ash Wednesday on 29 February are 2468, 2688, 2840, and 2992.<ref>[https://webspace.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/easter/easter_text2b.htm A Perpetual Easter and Passover Calculator: Days Dependent on Easter Sunday].</ref> (Ash Wednesday falls on 29 February if and only if Easter is on 15 April in a [[Leap year starting on Sunday|leap year]].) Also, there are certain times that Ash Wednesday coincides with [[Valentine's Day]] (14 February), which occurred in 1923, 1934, 1945, 2018, 2024, and will next occur in 2029.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Esmaquel|first=Paterno II|url=https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/inside-track/ash-wednesday-valentines-day-2024-love-god-jowa-survey/|title=Love for God or love for jowa? When Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine's Day|website=[[Rappler]]|date=10 February 2024|access-date=23 March 2024}}</ref>

[[File: High Altar of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church during Lent.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[chancel]] of a church on Ash Wednesday 2015 (the veiled [[altar cross]] and purple [[parament]]s are customary during Lent).]]
Ash Wednesday marks the start of a 40-day period which is an allusion to the separation of Jesus in the desert to [[fasting|fast]] and [[prayer|pray]]. During this time he was [[Temptation of Christ|tempted]]. {{bibleref|Matthew|4:1–11}}, {{bibleref|Mark|1:12–13}}, and {{bibleref|Luke|4:1–13}}.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.asianews.it/index.php?art=5554&l=en | publisher=Asia News.it | date=3 May 2006 | title=Lent with Jesus in the desert to fight the spirit of evil | quote=Turning to the gospel of the day, which is about Jesus' 40 days in the desert, "where he overcame the temptations of Satan" (cfr Mk 1:12–13), [[Pope Benedict XVI]] exhorted Christians to follow "their Teacher and Lord to face together with Him 'the struggle against the spirit of evil'." He said: "The desert is rather an eloquent metaphor of the human condition." | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303052341/http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=5554 | archive-date=3 March 2009}}</ref> While not specifically instituted in the Bible text, the 40 days of fast and pray is also analogous to the 40 days during which [[Moses]] repented and fasted in response to the making of the [[Golden calf]] (Exo. 34:27–28). (Jews today follow 40 days of repenting in preparation for and during the [[High Holy Days]] from [[Rosh Chodesh]] [[Elul]] to [[Yom Kippur]].)