A cross marked with ashes will be placed on the forehead of many Christians around the world today as the season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday.

Ashes were used in Old and New Testament scriptures as an outward symbol of mourning and penance and today ashes are also used as a visual reminder of one’s Lenten promises, said the Rev. Tom Lalor the pastor at St. Paul Catholic Church.

Lent is a 40-day time period before Easter that is reflective of the 40 days Christ spent in the desert fasting and enduring Satan’s temptation. During the season, Sundays are not included in the 40-day time frame since they are considered as celebrations of the resurrection.

“Ash Wednesday is a day that calls us back to our baptism commitment, Lalor said.

Throughout the centuries, Lent has evolved, beginning with an Easter celebration including a one to two-day period of fasting before the all-night vigil and the Eucharist in the first three centuries to its current practices.

“In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus tells us how we are to give alms, how we are to pray and how we are to fast,” Lalor said.

“Today the emphasis is on meaningful forms of penance especially the positive ones like charity and community aid that instill a greater love for God and others and that foster inner conversion,” Lalor said.

The Rev. Beth Palmer, who is the Rector at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Episcopal, added that historically along with Lent serving as a time as preparation for baptism, it was also a time for “notorious” sinners who had been kicked out of the church to confess and spend the time repenting so they could come back in, she said.

As the church evolved, these practices disappeared and Lent became a time for one to become “better — holier,” she said.

The ashes used for Ash Wednesday services typically come from palm branches that were used in a church’s Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday service.

“Our tradition at Holy Trinity is to hold on to the palms from Palm Sunday and to burn, them,” Palmer said.

Once the palms have been burned, they are pressed through a sieve until a fine dust is formed, she said.

Palmer said as church members come to the altar to receive ashes she will repeat, “remember that you are dust and to dust you will return.”

“I think the Ash Wednesday service is beautiful and meaningful. It is a service that is about our mortality. When I put the smudges on people’s foreheads it reminds me we are not here for long,” she said.