Ash Wednesday ashes are usually made by burning the dried palm branches that were blessed and used in church on the previous year’s Palm Sunday, then grinding them into a fine powder and sometimes mixing them with a bit of holy water or oil to form a paste.

What the ashes are made of

  • The primary material is burned palm fronds from last year’s Palm Sunday services.
  • The palms are completely burned, then sifted so only a fine ash or powder remains.
  • In many churches (especially in the United States), that powder is mixed with a small amount of holy water or chrism oil to make a dark paste that sticks to the forehead.
  • In some places, the ashes stay dry and are simply sprinkled on the head instead of smudged as a cross.

Why specifically palms?

  • The palms used are usually blessed during Palm Sunday liturgies, so churches don’t just throw them away as ordinary trash.
  • Burning them and using the ashes at the start of Lent symbolically “recycles” last year’s celebration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem into a sign of repentance and humility.
  • It ties two key moments together: Palm Sunday (joyful welcome of Christ) and Ash Wednesday (repentance and remembering we are “dust”).

Quick myth check

  • They are not made from random fireplace ash or cremated remains; mainstream Christian practice is specifically to use burned Palm Sunday palms. Jokes about other sources (like in forum threads) are just that—jokes.

TL;DR: The ashes on Ash Wednesday are almost always from last year’s blessed Palm Sunday palms, burned to ash, finely ground, and sometimes mixed with holy water or oil before being placed on the forehead.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.