Only two Ember Days left till Christmas

Many Catholics will appreciate that Advent is traditionally seen as a time of preparation, reflection and penance in the Church. As with Lent, the Gloria is omitted during Holy Mass, and the liturgical colour purple is used to signify a time of penance. Gaudete (Advent) and Laetare (Lent) Sundays are breaks in the penitential tone The post Only two Ember Days left till Christmas appeared first on Catholic Herald.

Dec 20, 2024 - 04:00

Many Catholics will appreciate that Advent is traditionally seen as a time of preparation, reflection and penance in the Church.

As with Lent, the Gloria is omitted during Holy Mass, and the liturgical colour purple is used to signify a time of penance. Gaudete (Advent) and Laetare (Lent) Sundays are breaks in the penitential tone of the respective liturgical periods to look forward to the great feast they prepare for.

However, within Advent itself, there is a lesser-known time of prayer and fasting: the Ember Days.

These special days take place in four groupings throughout the year, with each grouping roughly aligned with the change of the seasons.

Depending on your hemisphere, the Ember Days mark the beginning of Spring after the First Sunday of Lent, the beginning of Summer after Pentecost, the beginning of Autumn after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and the beginning of Winter after the Feast of St. Lucy.

Each set of Ember Days falls on a Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. For Advent 2024, these are observed on Wednesday, 18 December; Friday, 20 December; and Saturday, 21 December – meaning there are now just two left to go before Christmas Day.

Like many a good Christian tradition, their origin is uncertain, though they are likely influenced by Old Testament practices (the Book of Zechariah says, “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions”), along with having pagan parallels.

They were enthusiastically adopted as popular piety in late antiquity, then firmed up as liturgical practice in the medieval period (Pope Gregory VII established them as a universal observance for the entire Church), before being reduced to a recommendation rather than an obligation by the Church’s reforms of the 1960s.

The origins of the term “Ember” are also unclear. While it might stir up imagery of fire-lit evenings to celebrate a Christian festival with pagan roots, it is not that kind of ember. It may derive from the Anglo-Saxon word ymbren, meaning “circle”, or it may derive from the Old German term Quatember, meaning the Four Times (of the seasonal calendar).

What we do know is that Ember Days have long been designated as times of fasting, abstinence and thanksgiving to God for His creation. Giving thanks through fasting may seem contradictory, but as Vanessa Carlton reminded us when singing for the Counting Crows: “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.”

By depriving ourselves of the good things God has given us, we grow to appreciate them more.

The Ember Days are also meant to acknowledge God’s work in the seasons and to thank Him for the blessings He bestows through them, particularly agriculturally. Ember Days thereby connect us to the rhythms of the liturgical year alongside the seasonal year, giving time for reflection and gratitude for what we eat and where it comes from.

Traditionally, Ember Days were also tied to ordinations. Occurring quarterly, they provided regular opportunities for these sacred ceremonies, becoming favoured times because of their sacred association with fasting, prayer and the sanctification of vocations.

More than half a century after Ember Days were removed from the liturgical calendar, they are arguably in greater need now, as increasing numbers of people remain out of touch with the natural world.

Today, about a quarter of the world works in agriculture, compared to nearly half when Ember Days were last observed universally in 1966. Much of humanity, especially in the West, is increasingly dissociated from the seasons of the year; Ember Days were a regular reminder that their changes are part of God’s creation and that it is through this creation that we are blessed with food.

Similarly, today many of us live in a state of sustenance excess, no longer worrying about the next meal but instead blessed with all we need. The self-imposed hunger of fasting can help us better appreciate this blessing.

Finally, with the decline in priestly vocations across the Western world and the scandals that have plagued the sacred office, a dedicated time for ordinations and the sanctification of vocations would be a welcome revival.

So even though the Church no longer insists on this observance, there is much to be said for observing an Ember Day or two.

Photo: Detail of cartoon by Christian Adams for Catholic Herald magazine cover.