What Happened To The Ember Days ?

Illustration: FR. Z's BLOG

This Article is taken from, and can be read in full at,

THE MUNIMENT ROOM

Ember Days, the days of Fasting and Abstinence at the beginning of each of The Seasons, are ancient in origin. According to The Catholic Encyclopædia:

"The "Liber Pontificalis" ascribes to Pope Callistus (217 A.D. - 222 A.D.) a Law ordering The Fast, but probably it is older. Pope Leo the Great (440 A.D. - 461 A.D.) considers it an Apostolic institution.

When The Fourth Season was added, cannot be ascertained, but Pope Gelasius (492 A.D. - 496 A.D.) speaks of all four Seasons. This Pope also permitted the conferring of Priesthood and Deaconship on The Saturdays of Ember Week - these were formerly given only at Easter.

Before Pope Gelasius, The Ember Days were known only in Rome, but, after his time, their observance spread. They were brought into England by Saint Augustine."

Rogation Day. Circa 1950.

The Vicar and Sunday School Children 

go out into the fields to Bless The Crops. 

The little boy is carrying a symbolic Tree of Plenty.

Picture Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Illustration: ABOUT RELIGION

Rogation Days are also an ancient Tradition:

"Days of Prayer, and formerly also of Fasting, instituted by The Church to appease God's anger at man's transgressions, to ask protection in calamities, and to obtain a good and bountiful harvest."

Few Catholics under the age of seventy (other than those who regularly attend The Extraordinary Form of The Mass) will know what these are, as they were done away with. Strange to say, this was not by Bugnini and his colleagues, although they were happy to mess with them.

Illustration: MATER DEI LATIN MASS PARISH

Bugnini writes:

"The Ember Days are to be Celebrated at times and on days to be determined by the Episcopal Conferences, provided that they are in harmony with The Seasons and thus truly correspond to the purposes for which they were established."

Pope Paul told Bugnini that he would insist that any periods, which replaced the then-existing Ember Days, should be carefully determined by the Episcopal Conferences and that should also be Days of Prayer for Vocations to The Priesthood and Religious Life.

Illustration: ABOUT RELIGION

So where are The Ember Days ?

According to The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales:

“Amongst these other Celebrations, from the earliest times have been The Rogation Days and Ember Days; Days of Prayer for particular need, or, in thanksgiving for particular Blessings of The Lord”. Since 1972, The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has preferred to drop all distinction between Ember Days and Rogation Days and to speak simply of Days of Special Prayer.

In 1972, six such Days were introduced, but, in the years which followed, the number of such Days increased to such an extent that they risked intruding on The Celebration of The Liturgical Year, and especially on The Celebration of The Lord’s Day on Sundays.

Sunday School Children Celebrate Rogation Day in 1953.

A photo at Market Lavington Museum, Wiltshire, England.

Illustration: MARKET LAVINGTON MUSEUM

Subsequently, The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales concluded that, from Advent 1996, these Days of Special Prayer be subsumed into, and replaced by, a Cycle of Prayer.

The Cycle of Prayer seeks to preserve the integrity of The Sunday Liturgy, without losing sight of the importance of being united with The Universal Church, or Local Church, in Praying and working for important intentions. It seeks to do this by encouraging The Faithful to Pray for The Intentions set out in The Cycle in their Personal Prayers throughout the period specified, and not only at Mass on a particular day.

Saint Michael's Church, Bunwell, Norfolk, England, 

has always been the centre of Village Life. In this picture, taken on Rogation Sunday, April 1967, the Rector, Rev. Samuel Collins, followed by the Choir, Parishioners, and The New Buckenham Silver Band, walk The Parish Boundaries and Bless the Stream.

Illustration: BUNWELL HERITAGE GROUP

The Cycle of Prayer is based on a division of The Year into six periods, three of these being the principal Liturgical Seasons of Advent/Christmas, Lent, and Easter, and the other three periods being divisions of "Ordinary Time, namely Winter, Summer, and Autumn."

So, apart from losing their Initial Capital Letters, The Ember Days and Rogation Days were merged, were stripped of their Penitential Character, were separated from their association with The Seasons and Harvests, were moved from their ancient, perhaps even Apostolic, dates, and were then abolished and replaced by a "Cycle of Prayer", which was apparently instituted in 1996, and which is important enough to have a page dedicated to it by The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales Liturgy Office (HERE), and which I, for one, have never heard of before.

This is how "Nu-Church" is constructed. Take "Something Venerable" and say how important it is: So important, that it needs to be specially adapted for every Country and Territory; and, if the adaptation kills it off, well, that's how Traditions evolve, isn't it ?

And, if what replaces "The Venerable Something" ends up being neglected and ignored by everybody, it must be that "The Venerable Something" needed to have been abolished anyway.

The following Text is taken from 

THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANAC

Ember Days occur four times a year at the start of each Season. In Latin, they are known as the “Quattuor Anni Tempora” (the “Four Seasons Of The Year”).

Traditionally observed by some Christian denominations, each set of Ember Days is three days, kept on a successive Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. These three days are set apart for Fasting, Abstinence, and Prayer.

The first of these "four times a year" comes in Winter, after The Feast of Saint Lucia, on 13 December;

The second set comes with The First Sunday in Lent;

The third set comes after Whitsunday/Pentecost Sunday;

The fourth, and last set, comes after The Feast of The Holy Cross, 14 September.

Their dates can be remembered by this old mnemonic:

“Sant Crux, Lucia, Cineres, Charismata Dia,

Ut sit in angaria quarta sequens feria”.

Which means:

“Holy Cross, Lucy, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost,

are when The Quarter Holidays follow.”

Folklore has it that the weather on each of "The Three Days" foretells the weather for three successive months. As with much folklore, this is grounded in some common sense, since the beginning of The Four Seasons cue the changes in weather, as well as a shift in how we keep harmony with The Earth and respect our stewardship of The Earth, our “Garden of Eden.”