5 interesting facts about Ash Wednesday, Lent

For many Christians worldwide, the weeks leading up to Easter are a time of fasting, solemn contemplation and abstaining from certain luxuries and foods.

Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a season on the liturgical calendar representing 40 days plus Sundays which are not counted.

There are many traditions and customs associated with Lent. Some, like Ash Wednesday's ash cross on the forehead, and Catholics and some Lutherans abstaining from eating meat on Fridays, are fairly well known, but there are others. 

Here are five interesting facts about Lent.