“Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return”
Children burning the palm crosses of the previous year's Palm Sunday celebration to create ashes for Ash Wednesday at Salisbury Cathedral. The ashes, marked in a cross on the forehead, serve as a reminder of one's mortality.
memento mori
Latin phrase
memento mori, in art and spirituality, a symbolic trope or meditative practice that serves as a reminder of mortality and the transitory nature of earthly pleasures. Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning “remember you must die.” The notion of “remembering death” appears throughout European history, and other cultures have traditions that approach the same concept in unique ways. The concept of “remembering death” is expressed throughout ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. In Plato’s Phaedo,...
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