LINWOOD -- It's Ash Wednesday and people across South Jersey marked the start of the Roman Catholic Lenten season by attending mass and marking their foreheads with ash crosses.

Christians gathered at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Linwood to mark their foreheads, which symbolizes penitence and mortality. Ash Wednesday is also a day of fasting, and lent helps Christians spiritually prepare for Easter.

Wednesday marks the beginning of the 40-day Lenten season.