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By Leon SuseranChristians in Guyana and throughout the world begin the 40- day solemn periodMonsignor Montrose putting ash on this child's forehead during the traditional service on Ash Wednesday in 2011of Lent today with Ash Wednesday observances.During Lent, Christians commemorate the 40 days spent by Jesus in the desert, where he was tempted by the devil. They reminisce and meditate on events leading up to the crucifixion and his death, on Good Friday.The season ends on the Saturday before Easter Sunday when a big celebration takes place in commemoration of the Resurrection.Catholic priest in New Amsterdam, Monsignor Terrence Montrose noted that Ash Wednesday goes back as far as Biblical times. “Many people don’t know the history of Ash Wednesday but it goes back a very long way. In the Old Testament,Nick Castellanos Tigers Jersey, for example, it’s a sign of repentance… submission to God. People used to sit in the ashes and throw it over their bodies, as a sign of nothingness…asking God’s forgiveness, and so that tradition has come down even today and every Ash Wednesday, we throw ashes on ourselves as a sign that we are sorry for our sins and we ask God to help us to overcome our sins,” he noted.“We recognise that we are not great people. In the old days, kings and everybody else would put on sack cloth and threw ashes on themselves, as a sign of repentance.”He added that Lent is about making sacrifices. “All during Lent, we make sacrifices, we say special prayers, we do special works and so on, but all the time, praying and asking God to help us to overcome all those sins we have that prevent us from becoming who He truly is.”“But we also pray for other things, not only praying for ourselves, but our nation, our people…that God may have mercy on us and bless us with goodness and kindness and prosperity and so on,” he noted.Fr Montrose noted that many people look at Lent but truly miss out on “the height of the celebrations”– Good Friday and Easter.“There’s a whole connection between the two; our prayer, alms- giving, the story of the Passion, the Resurrection and Ascension (of Christ).”He encouraged all Christians and Guyanese “from Ash Wednesday until the Ascension, to pray and ask God and to celebrate the wonderful gift that He has given us in Jesus Christ.”The ashes imposed on the foreheads of Christians today were burnt earlier in the week at the various churches, from palms made and used during last year’s Palm Sunday.Today, many churches will hold special morning and evening masses during which hundreds will turn up for ashes in the traditional Ash Wednesday distribution. It is a day mandated by the Catholic Church for complete fasting and abstinence from meat and fish.