Ember Days

Ember Days, in the Roman and Anglican churches, are three days appointed four times in the year to be observed as days of fasting and abstinence; being the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent, after the feast of Pentecost, after the 14th September, and after the 13th December. The name is probably derived from the Saxon ymb, 'about,' and ryne, a 'course' or 'running,' and applied to these fasts because they came round at certain set seasons in the year. In the breviary and missal these days, as recurring in each quarter of the year, are called quatuor tempora (the canonists' jejunia quatuor temporum, or 'fasts of the four seasons'); and another derivation would make the term only a corruption of this title, perhaps through the German form, quatember. The ember days date from an early period in the church's history, and were introduced into England by Augustine. Originally they were only in part devoted to beseeching the grace of the Holy Ghost, as periods when ministers were admitted to holy orders; but it is to this purpose that the ember days are now particularly devoted, Roman Catholic clergy being ordained only on the Saturdays of the ember weeks, while the whole church fasts and prays, and a generally similar usage prevailing in the Church of England, which has appointed special prayers for use at these seasons.