After Ash Wednesday on February 14th, 2024, celebrities and other prominent Christian figures went to the internet to promote the period of fasting and repentance known as Lent. In the age of social media, even century-old religions use memes and trends to share their ideas and values.

Such is the case for American actor Mark Wahlberg, who unintentionally rebranded Lent as the Mark Wahlberg's 40-Day Challenge for a new audience on social media. Here's how that happened.

What Is 'Mark Wahlberg's 40-Day Challenge'?

On February 22nd, 2023, With ashes on his forehead, actor Mark Wahlberg decided to promote Lent with millions of Americans on the morning television program Today. At the bottom of the screen, the captioned title for the segment read "Mark Wahlberg's 40-Day Challenge." (shown below)

How Did 'Mark Wahlberg's 40-Day Challenge' Became A Meme?

Shortly after Wahlberg's interview aired on Today, a still image showing the actor and the captioned title for the segment became a viral meme on Twitter / X. X user @SophieHaigney posted on February 23rd, 2023, the image paired with the caption "Rebranding Lent as 'Mark Wahlberg’s 40 day challenge.'”

Moving forward to 2024, Wahlberg's 40-Day challenge meme resurfaced, as netizens joked about the start of Lent. For example, on February 14th, 2024, X user @joshcarlosjosh posted Mark's image paired with the caption "happy 'Mark Wahlberg's 40-day challenge' to all who observe!"

On the same day, X user @RebelEconProf used the same image alongside the caption "Shoutout to all my fellow Catholics who will be starting Mark Wahlberg’s 40-day challenge today, or as we call it, Lent."

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For the full history of Mark Wahlberg's 40-Day Challenge, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's entry for even more information.