Apparently everyone at Temple forgot it was Ash Wednesday yesterday

It’s every Catholic’s favorite time of year when we give up eating chocolate or fast food for a full forty days. (Come on, no one really makes it past the first week).

Last year, after getting my ashes at the Newman Center, a student sitting next to me in class asked if I wanted to borrow her mirror to clean my face.

This year, as I was walking home from class and I had a gentlemen yell from his car, “You’re too pretty to be religious.”

I’m not going to act like I know what that means or even how it makes me feel but it does call for a good laugh.

Many of us rush to church on Ash Wednesday so we could proudly display our forehead full of ashes. Sure, it all makes sense to us who were raised in Catholic schools and CCD classes, but to those who are unfamiliar with the tradition—it’s puzzling to see people walk around campus with black blobs smeared on their forehead.

Yesterday, I had to answer the same question over and over again if it was Ash Wednesday or not.

I don’t know is it?

Eileen Wickline, a sophomore Journalism and Sports Management major at Temple, was on the subway yesterday after getting her ashes when she overhead a child asking his mother why she had dirt on her head.

Another student, who chose to remain anonymous, told us his roommate was full of jokes today in honor of the religious holiday.

“He asked me if I let someone use my forehead as an ash tray and proceeded to point out all day that I had a little something on my face.”

Thankfully, the two are great friends and the student said he wasn’t offended by it.

At the end of the day, we can all have a good laugh after another Ash Wednesday at Temple University.