{"id":5209,"date":"2020-02-26T08:47:15","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T08:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=5209"},"modified":"2020-02-27T03:49:07","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T03:49:07","slug":"word-of-the-day-memento-mori","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2020\/02\/26\/word-of-the-day-memento-mori\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Memento Mori"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day is actually a phrase of the day, and it\u2019s in Latin: memento mori<\/em>. The Latin phrase means, according to www.dictionary.com<\/a>, \u201c1. remember that you must die; 2. an object, as a skull, serving as a reminder of death or mortality.\u201d According to www.etymonline.com<\/a>, the phrase entered the language in the “1590s, a decorative object, usually an ornament for the person, containing emblems of death or reminders of the fleetingness of life, common in 16c., a Latin phrase, literally \u2018remember to die,\u2019 that is, \u2018remember that you must die.\u2019 From second person singular imperative of meminisse<\/em> \u2018to remember, recollect, think of, bear in mind\u2019 (a reduplicated form, related to mens<\/em> \u2018mind,\u2019 from PIE root *men-<\/strong> (1) \u2018to think\u2019) + mori<\/em> \u2018to die\u2019 (from PIE root *mer-<\/strong> \u2018to rub away, harm\u2019 (also \u2018to die\u2019 and forming words referring to death and to beings subject to death).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today Christians around the world are celebrating Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the liturgical season called Lent \u201c(late 14c., short for Lenten<\/em> [n.] \u2018the forty days of fasting before Easter\u2019 in the Christian calendar (early 12c.), from Old English lencten<\/em> \u2018springtime, spring,\u2019 the season, also \u2018the fast of Lent,\u2019 from West Germanic *langitinaz<\/em> \u2018long-days,\u2019 or \u2018lengthening of the day\u2019 [source also of Old Saxon lentin<\/em>, Middle Dutch lenten<\/em>, Old High German lengizin manoth])<\/em>.\u201d It is called Ash Wednesday in part because many Christians undergo the \u201cimposition\u201d of ashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lent, which lasts 40 days (Sundays are not included, which is why it can last all the way to a Sunday), is a season during which Christians are supposed to contemplate the nature and extent of their sins in preparation for Holy Week and Easter. Many Christians do something special for the period of Lent: some give up something, like sweets, while others take on something, like reading more from Scripture. For denominations that do not normally have a midweek evening service, Lent features a Wednesday night service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the day of Ash Wednesday, some churches have one or more services that culminate in the imposition of ashes on the foreheads of the parishioners, along with communion. The imposition of ashes leaves a smudge on people\u2019s foreheads, which sometimes appears there again the next day. The original imposition puts the ashes on in the form of a cross, but often the smudge just looks like a smudge. When the pastor crosses the parishioner with the ashes, s\/he says something like, \u201cRemember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.\u201d This is clearly a memento mori<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a little bit short tonight, but that is because I went to the Ash Wednesday service at Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church in Pendleton, SC. And yes, the pastor put ashes on my forehead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image is from https:\/\/airmaria.com\/2016\/02\/10\/some-things-about-ash-wednesday\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day is actually a phrase of the day, and it\u2019s in Latin: memento mori. The Latin phrase means, according to www.dictionary.com, \u201c1. remember that you must […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5212,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5209\/revisions\/5212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}