Eugene Diamond spent Tuesday morning dipping strawberries into chocolate at his household’s candy store in a small city outdoors Kansas Metropolis. It was the day earlier than Valentine’s Day, and all issues chocolate had been in excessive demand.

For Mr. Diamond, a practising Catholic, one other deadline was additionally looming: This yr, Valentine’s Day occurs to fall on Ash Wednesday, usually dedicated to penitence and fasting. Beginning that day, Mr. Diamond, his spouse and eight youngsters might be giving up sweets till Easter, which falls this yr on March 31.

Mr. Diamond, 39, taste-tested the sweets on the store on Tuesday to organize. “I’ve received to attempt these at present as a result of I’m not going to have an opportunity to attempt them tomorrow,” he mentioned.

Ash Wednesday is the primary day of Lent, a season marked by sacrifice and solemnity. At church companies throughout the nation, clergy members will smudge crosses on parishioners’ foreheads, murmuring, “Keep in mind you might be mud, and to mud you shall return.”

The day is supposed to function a reminder of human mortality, the beginning of a season that contrasts with and culminates within the festivity of Easter. Practising Catholics forgo meat on Ash Wednesday, and the church additionally asks individuals aged 18 to 59 to eat only one full meal, plus two smaller ones “that collectively will not be equal to a full meal.”

That makes it a tricky match with Valentine’s Day, a celebration of romantic love typically marked with wealthy meals, wine and sweet.

For Catholics and others who observe the Christian liturgical calendar, the juxtaposition presents one thing of a dilemma. Throughout the nation, clergy members and their flocks are determining methods to have their molten chocolate cake and eat it, too — simply not all on the identical day.

The 2 holidays fell on the identical day in 2018, and can accomplish that once more in 2029. After that, Catholics, Episcopalians and others might be away from the unusual overlap till the yr 2170, some liturgical consultants mentioned. (Ash Wednesday is pegged to Easter, a “movable feast” whose date is decided by the lunar calendar.)

“Valentine’s Day has a temper of celebratory indulgence, and Ash Wednesday has a way more solemn temper,” mentioned Gabrielle Girgis, 33, a practising Catholic and postdoctoral fellow on the Ethics and Public Coverage Heart who lives in South Bend, Ind.

Ms. Girgis’s older youngsters go to a Catholic faculty that may have a good time Valentine’s Day within the classroom a day early to keep away from the battle. Her household will go to Mass and have a easy soup supper on Wednesday. On Thursday, she and her husband will have a good time Valentine’s Day at Jesús Latin Grill and Tequila Bar, a Latin American restaurant.

On-line, Catholics and others had enjoyable with the juxtaposition.

“Valentine, I’d wish to take you out for a small meal that, when mixed with one other small meal, doesn’t exceed your massive meal,” mentioned one broadly shared message on social media.

“You possibly can’t spell Valentine’s with out Lent,” others identified.

In Austin, the Rev. Noah Stansbury, an Episcopal priest who serves college students on the College of Texas, ordered customized sweet hearts that learn “DUST 2 DUST,” “LIFE IS SHORT” and “UR SO LOVED.” He mentioned he would cross them out on Wednesday at an “ashes to go” station on campus, providing passers-by a fast prayer and the customary cross of ashes on their foreheads.

“It’s a solution to change the story slightly bit, to level to the core message that life is brief and we all know that,” Mr. Stansbury mentioned. “This can be a reminder that if you wish to change the best way you’re residing, God loves you sufficient that can assist you with that.”

He received the concept for the sweet from his buddy Jay Hulme, a poet who wrote on social media that “individuals might be going about their valentine’s days, being all cute and loving, and clergy are gonna be out on the streets in black robes with pots of ash like ‘DEATH! DEATH! DEATH!’”

Some Catholic clergy members are reminding their flocks that within the church calendar, Ash Wednesday clearly trumps Valentine’s Day, which has a few of its origins in honoring a third-century saint however is now primarily a secular vacation.

In St. Augustine, Fla., Bishop Erik Pohlmeier was amongst those that inspired {couples} in his diocese to have a good time Valentine’s Day a day early this yr. That might have put the celebration on Mardi Gras, or Fats Tuesday, a day historically marked by a giant pancake supper and different excessive and indulgent indulgences on the evening earlier than fasting and sobriety take over for Lent. As Shakespeare’s Falstaff may need put it: Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we keep in mind our demise.

However Bishop Pohlmeier didn’t see the spirit of Valentine’s Day as inherently at odds with the message of Lent.

Within the season resulting in Easter, “we acknowledge in our religion that God himself selected to return to us on this completely self-giving manner,” he mentioned. “Human love is supposed to be an expression of that sort of love.”

He identified that there was extra drama in Catholic circles when St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Friday in Lent final yr, prompting some bishops to grant particular dispensations for consuming meat on a vacation identified for corned beef.

Outdoors Kansas Metropolis, Mr. Diamond, who additionally works as a advisor for nonprofit organizations, deliberate to attend Mass together with his household on Wednesday. However on Tuesday evening, he and his spouse had been heading to a brewery hop organized by Faculty of Love, a ministry for Catholic {couples} supported by the Archdiocese of Kansas Metropolis. It was billed as a Valentine’s date evening, however scheduled for the thirteenth out of deference to Ash Wednesday.

“It’s considerably sophisticated to do the occasion and attempt to take a bunch of issues that don’t appear to be they go collectively and attempt to make it work,” mentioned Mike Dennihan, who based Faculty of Love together with his spouse, Kristi Dennihan. He famous that each beer and sweets could be out there for individuals who could be giving up both, or each, beginning the following day.

Elsewhere in Kansas Metropolis, the Chiefs ready to have a good time their Tremendous Bowl victory with a usually beer-soaked parade and rally downtown on Wednesday.

The crew’s kicker, Harrison Butker, who speaks typically about his Catholic religion, mentioned that he could be attending Mass within the morning together with his spouse and youngsters. Although he’ll take part within the parade, he added in an electronic mail to The New York Instances, “I received’t be celebrating within the ordinary manner with foods and drinks because it’s a day of fasting in addition to abstinence from meat.”

For Mr. Butker, the trade-off is value it.

“Similar to there isn’t any Tremendous Bowl with out sacrifice, there isn’t any Resurrection with out our Lord’s sacrifice,” he wrote. “This might be powerful, however I’ve to keep in mind that if I wish to have a good time our Lord’s Resurrection on Easter I’ve to take part in his struggling throughout Lent.”