Ash Wednesday worshipers in Colombia hit by mysterious burning rash on forehead
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}COLUMBIA, SC - FEBRUARY 10: A woman with a cross on his forehead for Ash Wednesday listens to Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) during a campaign rally at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center February 10, 2016 in Columbia, South Carolina. Rubio placed fifth in the New Hampshire primary, behind fellow GOP candidates Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Donald Trump, who won with 35 percent of the vote. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (2016 Getty Images)
Instead of the wrath of God, a group of students in Colombia experienced the rash of God.
About 20 students at the Institución Educativa Gilberto Echeverri Mejía in Rio Negro, a town on the outskirts of the city of Medellín, experienced a burning rash on their foreheads after receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday.
“Immediately the students threw water on themselves and then noticed they had burn marks,” Paula Pérez Villa, a teacher at the school told "El Colombiano" newspaper.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ash Wednesday, the first day in Lent in the Catholic Church, is a holy day where ashes made from palm branches of the previous year's Palm Sunday are blessed and placed them on the heads of participants.
This isn’t the first time Colombia has been hit by a rash of bad ashes.
Last year, parishioners in the village of San Antonio de Pereira experienced burns after receiving the ashes as well.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}At that time, Andrés Felipe Vasquez, the vicar of the parish, said that the situation could have been caused by an allergic reaction to the ash and ruled out superstitious issues in the case.