Why is Ash Wednesday so Popular?

Who has not noticed how crowded the church is on Ash Wednesday compared to either weekend around it? I have not paid enough attention to compare exact pew density in relation to Christmas and Easter, but it definitely ranks among the best-attended Masses of the liturgical year. Only in recent years did I hear the joke about why so many people arrive on this particular day. Answer: the church is giving out something free, the ashes.  

Jokes aside, however, I just began reading an article at catholicculture.org by Phil Lawler. He opened his article with "Why is Ash Wednesday—not Easter Sunday, not Christmas, not Good Friday or Pentecost—the day when American Catholics spend the most time talking about being Catholic?" This nudged a memory from something I read or heard in the last year or so, I apologize for not knowing the source. Essentially we need symbols to hold us together.

Orthodox Jewish men recognize each other by the yarmulka. Muslim women wear a veil. Catholics ate fish on Friday. But we don't anymore. Fifty and sixty years ago no Catholic ate meat on Friday, the women wore veils in church, we carried our rosaries and holy cards. There were ways we could recognize our common heritage. Even thirty years ago every fast food place had super prices on fish sandwiches all Lent long.  And when we went in we could recognize our brothers ans sisters ordering that fish. My unremembered source mentioned that when the English Catholic bishops discontinued abstinence from meat on Fridays, Mass attendance plummeted. Ideally our faith should be much deeper than the common bond of no burgers or pepperoni pizza on Friday, yet that experience in England shows the importance of having a common heritage with others that we can identify; we can see that we are part of a larger group.

So why are so many Catholics moved to return home for Ash Wednesday and, more curiously as Mr Lawler mentioned, moved to talk about being Catholic? As I am wrapping up here, I can think of many strong reasons, but I propose that one minor reason may be because it gives us a sign, a symbol of our unity.