More Churches Making their Own Ashes for Lent

An interesting article from the local paper about more churches making their own ashes rather than buying them.


The black smudge of Ash Wednesday has always been a sign of spiritual austerity.

Now it's a sign of financial austerity, too.

The notion of churches making their own sacred ashes for Ash Wednesday services was abandoned years ago by many congregations. Whether it was fear of fire or simply the ease of ordering out, many churches stopped burning palm fronds from previous Palm Sundays and turned instead to commercial suppliers for their stock of ashes for the centuries-old rite.

This year, though, one of the largest ash suppliers in the Southeast says the deep recession has put a damper on business. Some churches are going back to making their own palm ash to save money.

"I sent out less than half as much ash as I normally do," said Ralph M. Higginbotham, an 85-year-old palm ash supplier from Mims, Fla., who has been in business for nearly four decades. "I asked one of my good customers about the drop, and they said it was because a lot of the Catholic churches in the Northeast have members who've lost their jobs. And if they're unemployed, they're not putting money in the church plates. If that happens, the churches aren't ordering as many products."

story here