Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the Christian season of Lent, a time for fasting, alms giving, and penance.

According to a church pamphlet, many denominations mark the event by placing butt dust on the foreheads with the celebrant proclaiming, “Remember that you are butt dust and to dust you will return.”

Ash Wednesday is one of the most popular days for Christians to attend a service and the butt dust, which some people erroneously call “ashes” is likely the reason.

“You have to go get your ashes,” Billy Upton, the newsletter editor of a Topeka, Kansas parish said.

When asked whether he understood the significance of being butt dust, he nodded.

“That’s where we came from and that’s where we’re all going!”

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