As Uncle Ken said, nonenforcement happens all the time, but that doesn't make it right. My position has always been that a law should either be enforced or repealed. The very reason obsolete laws remain on the books is that they are not enforced, so there is no public outcry to get them repealed.
I think paczkis are a Polish thing, not a Czech thing.
I don't remember the folks at Elsdon making a big deal about Ash Wednesday and Lent, but the Catholics sure did. I think Lent is supposed to be a time of introspection and repentance. The Bible mentions "sack cloth and ashes", which is what people were supposed to wear when they felt guilty about something. The little spot of ashes that they put on the foreheads of Catholics is probably symbolic of that. I don't think Palm Sunday has anything to do with it, but I don't know that for a fact. The way I remember it, Palm Sunday is about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a borrowed ass, which symbolized his humility. An earthly king would have rode in on a golden chariot, or at least a war horse. People greeted Him as a king nevertheless, casting palm fronds and their garments in his path, which is what made the Jewish leaders nervous. They had a cushy deal being Roman puppets and they didn't want anybody to infringe on that. I'm not sure what the significance of 40 days is, but the Bible mentions it in connection with several important events. Somebody told me once that it was an allegorical number that just meant "a long time".
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