Ash Wednesday (also known as 灰日 or 大齋首日 in Taiwan) fell on February 18 this year (2026), which happened to be the second day of the Lunar New Year (農曆馬年正月初二).
According to local custom, married women return to their mothers’ homes to visit their parents on this day. However, the six of us — the Liang family — followed the Christian tradition and celebrated Ash Wednesday at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Kaohsiung.
During the service, the Rev. Antony presided. I served as a LEM, my grandson James as an acolyte, and Jean read one of the Bible lessons. We all felt deeply blessed to have the opportunity to serve together on such a special occasion.
After the Rev. Antony imposed ashes on the foreheads of all who attended the service — including mine — he handed the remaining ashes to me and asked me to do the same on him.
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” I said, just as he had said earlier, in Mandarin, in a soft but audible voice.
(Oh, Lord, may You bless all who were present in the church that day, and also guide and protect those who were traveling or engaged in other activities.)
The next morning, Jean, James, and I returned from Kaohsiung to Hualien. Three days later, the three of us joined the Sunday service at St. Luke’s Church for the First Sunday in Lent.
Like many other Episcopal churches in Taiwan, St. Luke’s did not hold an Ash Wednesday service on February 18 because it fell during the Lunar New Year. Instead, the Imposition of Ashes was conducted this morning by the Rev. Minglong Wu as part of the service for the First Sunday in Lent.
The Rev. Wu delivered a meaningful sermon. I had translated most of it into English last night because Ms. Catherine had told me that she and her nephew Lawrence and his wife, Anja — who are not familiar with Mandarin — would be joining us for the service. They arrived on time, together with Ms. Jingjuan Zheng, our good friend from Taichung. (See photos below.)
