A return to (something like) normal for Nashville churches as Lent begins and the latest COVID surge recedes

Lent officially begins today, and things are feeling somewhat back to normal this year as the pandemic lessens.

Before the solemn Ash Wednesday church services, bars and eateries were crowded for Fat Tuesday’s final celebrations — with more patrons masking the top half of their faces than the lower half.

Rachel Iacovone WPLN News

Local band Brassville’s live performance at Assembly Food Hall’s Fat Tuesday event spoke to the sense of normalcy heading into the current Lenten season compared to Lents of recent pandemic years.

Downtown Nashville at Fifth and Broadway, local band Brassville played for a cheery crowd sipping on Mardi Gras-themed drinks. Larry Jenkins is one of the group’s trumpeters. 

“It’s Fat Tuesday, so you know, this is the start of Mardi Gras. And we’re kind of bringing in some of that flavor to Nashville,” he said. “I mean, being a brass band, you are still rooted in those traditions in some way. So, this is one of those things where, you know, we just brought that flavor, partnered with Assembly Food Hall to bring something special to the people.”

More: Brassville is helping expand Nashville’s musical identity with a standout sound and sense of purpose

When Jenkins is not entertaining on stage, he’s instructing others how to perform. As a TSU music professor, he says his post-Fat Tuesday plans were a large cup of coffee Wednesday morning before teaching concert band bright and early.

Rachel Iacovone WPLN News

Despite the recent long nights and early mornings between his roles in Brassville and at TSU, Larry Jenkins (center) says they’ve been some of the “funnest times” being able to perform together for new faces and in new places.

“We were having a ball. You know, this is really some of the funnest times to have — to be together and just be able to play,” Jenkins said. “I think we’ve been performing actually out in public for about four or five days straight, so this has been a good ride.”

As Fat Tuesday rolled into Ash Wednesday, parishioners at the Cathedral of the Incarnation were less worried about a lack of sleep and more about finding parking. Though a universally frustrating experience in Nashville, on this holy day, families and friends get out of their cars after the traffic jam with seemingly serene expressions, perhaps because of how, well, normal this Lent looks after the past two pandemic years.

Inside the church, pews were packed from wall to wall at 7 a.m. — such an early hour that the associate pastor, Father Nicholas Allen, mentioned it in his homily as proof of everyone’s devotion.

As ashes were distributed in cross motions on mass goers’ foreheads, Allen said a familiar line to each member of a familiar-sized crowd, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

It’s a reminder of the cyclical nature of the universe as things circle back to what they were before in Nashville.

This story was updated between Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday.