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Making Ashes
for Ash Wednesday

by The Rev. Thomas L. Weitzel
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

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1. On Palm Sunday of the year before, be sure to set aside some palms for burning for Ash Wednesday.

2. In a safe environment (probably outdoors), burn the palms in a large and open metal pan.  (Have a fire extinguisher handy just in case.)

3. Once burned, reduce the debris in the pan with a fork.

4. Sift the ash through a fine strainer with a spoon to get a fine light-gray ash.  Discard larger debris left in the strainer.

5. Into the fine, light-gray ash, add just a few drops of olive oil at a time, mixing it into the ash with the fork. The goal here is to use only enough oil to darken the ash and have it coalesce just a bit, but leaving it essentially dry.  You do not want a wet or clumpy mixture.  When it comes to oil, less is better.  Add only drops at a time.
 

6. You will know when you've added enough oil by this test:  Rub your thumb into the mixture and see if you can make a dark smudge mark on the back of your hand without leaving ash particles. You don’t want the mixture so dry that ash particles run down someone’s nose, nor do you want the mixture so wet that it leaves ash clumps on someone’s forehead. The mixture is right when your thumb becomes a black marker that can leave a nice black smudge mark in the sign of a cross.

7. Store the mixture in a sealed container until Ash Wednesday.  A pyx (used for holding hosts for home communions) works well for this purpose.
 

8. For Ash Wednesday, have the altar guild put some lemon into a bowl of water to wash your hands after the imposition.  The lemon will greatly assist in removing the ash.