I've never noticed anyone with ash smeared on their forehead, but I do sometimes give up something for Lent, just as an exercise in self-control (but I don't do sober October or dry January - or try to grow a moustache in November).

I have read somewhere that in times gone by people believed that barnacle geese came from barnacles so they counted as fish, and you could eat them on Fridays.

I discovered last year that Catholics who give something up for Lent are allowed to eat whatever it is on Sundays because the 'fast' is supposed to be for 40 days, representing the time Christ spent in the wilderness resisting the temptations of the devil - but the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter is 46 days so it has to be fudged.

I suspect that using up the eggs in pancakes and then not eating any until Easter, when eggs hatch into chicks (or rabbits, for the really confused), has more to do with the need to stop eating eggs so that the chickens have a chance to produce chicks.