Ash Wednesday?

Welcome back! English is below Japanese.

 

みんな、

Ash Wednesday

灰の水曜日

って知ってる?

ある日、ニューヨークの街を歩いてるとあらゆる場所で額に黒っぽいクロスマークみたいなのを書いてる人を何人も見たよ

美術館のスタッフ、地下鉄の乗客、

老若男女問わずに沢山いたから

気になってググってみた

 

灰の水曜日(はいのすいようび、 英: Ash Wednesday 中略)は、キリスト教カトリック教会をはじめとする西方教会典礼暦年のうちの一日。四旬節の初日(復活祭の46日前)に当たる。元来はカトリック教会の行事であるが、その流れを汲むプロテスタント教会聖公会ルーテル教会など)でも行われる。東方教会では行われない。              出典:Wikipedia

 

私自身、中学から大学までプロテスタント系の学校に通ってたけど聞いたことなかった(聖書の授業寝てたからかな?)

 

今年の灰の水曜日は2月26日だったよ

それがたまたまニューヨークの滞在に被ってたらしい

これが宗教的なものと知って感じたことは

日本に比べて若い人でも宗教を信仰してて、しかもそれがオープンだということ

日本って無宗教の人が多かったり、宗教を示すようなことを避ける傾向があるよね

私もやけど。

 

とても目立つ場所の額に黒で十字架を書くのは私にとってすごく新鮮で、これもアイデンティティを表す方法のひとつなのかって考えたらカッコいいなとも思った

そんな先週の水曜日

いつか見かけたらキリスト教のしきたりなんだなってこのブログを思い出してくれると嬉しいな

 

Hi there! I'm still in the jet lag crisis...

 

Anyone knows about Ash Wednesday?

One day I saw some people who had something black mark on their foreheads regardless of gender and generations in NY, which made me interested so I googled it.


Ash Wednesday is a Christian holy day of prayer and fasting. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and falls on the first day of Lent,[2] the six weeks of penitence before Easter. Ash Wednesday is traditionally observed by Western Christians. It is observed by Catholicsin the Roman Rite, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Moravians, Independent Catholics, as well as by many from the Reformed faith (inclusive of the Congregationalist, Continental Reformed, Presbyterian traditions).     (Source: Wikipedia)

 

Wikipedia told me that Ash Wednessday is one of the customs of Christianity. I had no idea about it even though I've been studying at Protestant school from Junior high to University. I don't think I had a chance to get to know the custom through the 10 years. Probably.

 

From this experience, little bit surprised that younger generations have own religious identity and they're also open, compared to Japanese people.

Japan is the last country that people tend to express and show their religious beliefs and talk about this kind of thing I ever know. Plus, especially the youth are not likely to be religious. In fact, I don't have an religious identity and rarely try to chat about it with my friends as well.

 

I feel like I found diversity in NY through Ash Wednesday.