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Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season, which lasts until the Easter Vigil. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 are permitted to consume only one full meal each day, which may be supplemented by two smaller meals, which together should not equal the full meal. These days are also days of abstinence from meat.

At Masses and Services of worship on this day, worshippers are blessed with ashes by the celebrating priest or minister. The priest or minister marks the forehead of each participant with black ashes, in the shape of a cross, which the worshipper traditionally retains until washing it off after sundown. The symbolism echoes the ancient Near Eastern tradition of throwing ash over one's head signifying repentance before God (as related numerous times in the Bible). The priest or minister offers the worshipper an instruction while applying the ashes.

The ashes are prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebrations and mixing them with olive oil as a fixative. In the Roman Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday is observed by fasting, abstinence (from meat), and repentance—a day of contemplating one's transgressions. The ashes are sacramentals, not a sacrament. The penitential psalms are read.

The Anglican Book of Common Prayer designates Ash Wednesday as a day of fasting.

As the first day of Lent, it comes the day after Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras, the last day of the Carnival season. The word "Carnival" is derived from the Italian word carne "meat", in reference to the Lenten practice of giving up meat.

In Western Christianity, Lent is the forty-day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday (Pascha). In Eastern Christianity, these forty days are known as Great Lent to distinguish it from the Winter Lent, or Advent (known in Greek as the "Great Fast" and the "Nativity Fast", respectively). This article discusses Lent as understood and practiced in Western Christianity, except where noted.

Easter celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, while Lent is a time of preparation for Holy Week (or the Passion Week for Catholics worshiping in the new rite of the Mass). Holy Week recalls the events preceding and during the crucifixion, which occurred in Jerusalem in the Roman province Judea, AD 29.

Holy Days

There are several holy days within the season of Lent. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent in western Christianity; Clean Monday (Ash Monday) is the first day in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The fourth Sunday within Lent, which marks the halfway point between Ash Wednesday and Easter, is sometimes referred to as Laetare Sunday, particularly by Roman Catholics. The Sunday following is also known as Passion Sunday for traditional Catholics, though the latter term is also applied to the sixth and last Sunday of Lent, or Palm Sunday.

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, the final week of Lent immediately preceding Easter. Thursday of Holy Week, is known as Maundy Thursday, which is a day Christians commemorate the "Last Supper" shared by Jesus with his disciples. Good Friday follows the next day, in which Christians remember Christ's crucifixion and burial.

Holy Week and the season of Lent, depending on denomination and local custom, end with Easter Vigil at sundown on Holy Saturday or on the morning of Easter Sunday.