Bolgatanga, Feb. 21, GNA - Catholics and Anglicans in the Upper East Region today celebrated Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent to prepare for Easter.

The preparation period of 40 days starts on a Wednesday with church services where the congregation is reminded of some obligations they have to abide by in order to prepare thoroughly for the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

At Our Lady Queen and Africa Catholic Church (OLA) in Bolgatanga, Reverend Father Peter Jammeh, said in a sermon that the preparation period was a time for reflection, repentance from sin, a time for one to sacrifice for the benefit of others, for one to abstain from certain luxuries and to give alms to the needy.

He called on Christians to rededicate themselves to the values of their faith and spend more time in prayer and reading the Holy Scriptures.

Each person who attended the church today had ash marked on the forehead as a sign of repentance and a reminder of the mortality of mankind.

Catholics have an obligation to abstain from meat and alcoholic drinks every Friday for the entire period.