Los Angeles – Some churches abandoned the practice because of the fire danger. Some responded to air-quality laws.
At Our Mother of Good Counsel Church, a parishioner who for years made the ashes for Ash Wednesday died in the 1980s – and so did the parish’s practice of burning fronds from the previous Palm Sunday for the centuries-old rite.
So Our Mother of Good Counsel, like churches all over the country, began ordering ashes from a church supply store. Some churches buy them in person, others on the Internet.
“It’s just a lot easier and safer for most churches,” said the Rev. Tom Behan, who has served off and on at the parish for 40 years. “It’s what Ash Wednesday means that matters.”
Ash Wednesday is a day of penance marking the beginning of Lent for Western Christian churches.
Roman Catholic, Anglican and, increasingly, some Protestant churches hold special services at which churchgoers’ foreheads are marked with palm ash as a symbol of death and sorrow for sin.
In the U.S., commercial palm ash makers are based in Texas and Florida and ship the ash all over the country, along with decorative fronds used in Palm Sunday services. The ashes are not considered holy until they are blessed for a service.
The ashes are packed in canisters or in resealable sandwich bags. One ounce, which can bless 250 people, typically sells for $3.50.
“We provide ashes as a service to churches that are too small to make their own,” said Daniel Castonguay, owner of Abbott Church Goods, a New Jersey-based business that orders its ash from Texas. “The majority of our customers, which are in New England, don’t have a lot of palm trees around either.”
