This year, Catholics celebrated two occasions on February 14 -- Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday.
The San Sebastian Cathedral, despite being under renovation, Catholics attended the afternoon mass to offer their prayers and observe the time-honored religious tradition of the Wednesday.Ash Wednesday is the commencement of the Lenten season as observed by the Catholic faithful.
This is the time to observe fasting from what we normally do and it so happened that the Ash Wednesday fell on February 14 or Valentine's Day.
With the coincidence of two celebrations, a word was coined as VaLENTine's Day which is a combination of Valentine's Day and the Lenten Season.
A Catholic priest in his homily said to know that after attending this mass, most of you will go on a date, ano paw? But Happy Valentine's Day to all. We commenced the observance of the Lenten Season. The ash symbolizes that we were formed from ash and we will go back to ash."
There are two faces of the Lenten Season which this ash means that a person repents for his sins. This is a ritual but it is up to us to prove that we have repented from our sins. The change is not external but more internal which is the change of heart. We shall go back to our God by tearing apart our sinful heart, he said.
This ash will have no meaning if we continue to sin, he said.
The second face of the Lenten season is the feeling of being happy that we have received God in our hearts. God is ready to forgive us of our sins.
He added that we need to observe fasting not just for food but also for committing sins.*