You’re the one that brought up Matt. 4:4.
**Hair shirts (the equivalent of sackcloth)was popular during medeival times. It is somewhat out of favor these days.**
As must be the rending of clothes, for I haven’t noticed any Catholics or Proddies doing those rituals. And that is my point: Those things witnessed in scripture were done in great conviction and outcrying to God for deliverance. There was dramatic change if their life. It was not some vain yearly ritual.
All of my life I’ve lived and worked around people that observed the ash ritual, and it really showed no dramatic change in their daily walk.
I've met many Protestant and non-denominational Christians who say Jesus is their personal savior and then act no different from secularists in their mores.