the.com/ember days
Quarterly fasting days the Church scheduled so precisely it forgot why anyone bothered.
means The four sets of three days—Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday—set aside in each season of the traditional Christian calendar for fasting, prayer, and (often) the ordination of clergy.
from Despite the cozy fireside look of "ember," there's no coal involved. The English term comes from Old English ymbren, ultimately from ymbryne, "a running around, a recurring cycle" (ymb, "around" + ryne, "a course or running")—naming the seasonal turn of the year. The accidental resemblance to "ember" is just lucky spelling. A popular alternative story links the name to Latin quatuor tempora, "the four seasons/times," which is the proper Latin name for these days; that phrase shaped the German Quatember and similar forms, but the English word more likely descends from the native ymbren root.
- four seasons
- Three days of fasting each quarter, all year
- name origin
- Likely Latin quatuor tempora, not glowing coals
- ordination timing
- Priests were traditionally ordained on Ember Saturdays
- weather lore
- Folk belief used them to forecast the coming season
- near-extinct
- Vatican II made them optional, and they vanished
ember days catholic church — four sets of three days each in the liturgical calendar for fasting and prayer, observed on specific weeks throughout the year
ember wednesday — the wednesday of ember week, historically a day of abstinence and fasting in catholic tradition since at least the 5th century