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Ash Wednesday, a Christian Feast, is the beginning of Lent, which is a time to fast, pray, and give. In the Ash Wednesday Mass, we receive ashes from the previous year’s palms on our foreheads in the form of a cross. The ashes are used to symbolize the Gospel message of, “until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return” in Genesis 3:19. During Lent, Catholics customarily “give up” an unnecessary item, for example, chocolate, or doing more of a certain thing, like praying the rosary. Also, it's a time to donate food, clothing, or your time to a place that helps our community. The holiday takes place over six and a half weeks, ending with Maundy Thursday, the day of the Last Supper, and Easter. The season’s reason is to emulate Jesus’s fast in the desert and the temptations by the devil that he went through before he began his ministry. The practice has been in place since the beginning of the Church, but the holiday that we would recognize emerged in the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries. Have a blessed Lenten Season!

As we step into 2026, we start with a new animal for the Lunar New Year, and this year it is the Year of the Horse! The Lunar New Year is a holiday celebrated in many Asian communities, with family reunions, cleaning, and making traditional food. The new year is typically a fifteen-day celebration consisting of lantern festivals, fireworks, and red envelopes. The red envelopes are an extremely important part of the celebration, and families give them to each other to symbolize good luck and blessings for the new year. These envelopes typically contain money as well. Food is another important part of the new year, and they have different meanings as well. For example, dumplings represent wealth, noodles represent health, fruit represents luck, and a whole chicken represents unity. Each food and its symbol is actually a homophone because the foods that are eaten come from a word. This year’s celebration was on Tuesday the Seventeenth, and many people welcomed the Year of the Horse.