The liturgical use of ashes originates in Old Testament times. Ashes symbolized mourning, mortality and penance. For instance, in the Book of Esther, Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes when he heard of the decree of King Ahasuerus (or Xerxes, 485-464 B.C.) of Persia to kill all of the Jewish people in the Persian Empire (Est 4:1). Job (whose story was written between the 7th and 5th centuries B.C.) repented in sackcloth and ashes (Job 42:6). Prophesying the Babylonian captivity of Jerusalem, Daniel (c. 550 B.C.) wrote, "I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes" (Dn 9:3). In the fifth century B.C., after Jonah's preaching of conversion and repentance, the town of Ninevah proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, and the king covered himself with sackcloth and sat in the ashes (Jon 3:5-6). These Old Testament examples evidence both a recognized practice of using ashes and a common understanding of their symbolism.
Jesus Himself also made reference to ashes. Referring to towns that refused to repent of sin although they had witnessed the miracles and heard the good news, our Lord said, "If the miracles worked in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they would have reformed in sackcloth and ashes long ago" (Mt 11:21).
Great job- and worth repeating! Jonah was pretty ticked off when the Ninevites were forgiven because of their penance. After all, he had spoken God’s Word to them, then sat waiting for the fire and brimstone to fall. Seems he was more concerned with his reputation than with the welfare of the people. I wonder how much ivy is going to be growing in people’s yards this summer... : )
This laying on of ashes was done on Wednesday, the day named for Odin, Odin’s Day. And the German word for the day called Wednesday in English is “Mittwoch” or mid-week, in French it is mercredi; in Spanish, miércoles; and in Hebrew it is pronounced Yom-re-vee-EE.
Nothing related to Odin in those, thus we have merely false linking of doing ashes to worshiping a pagan god based upon the linquistic orgin of a word for a day of the week — pretty weak logic in my view.