Ember Days

Ember Days, 2010-2011


Canon III.8.5 (i) states, "Each Postulant or Candidate for ordination to the Priesthood shall communicate with the Bishop in person or by letter, four times a year, in the Ember Weeks, reflecting on the Candidate's academic experience and personal and spiritual development.” The Canons are the body of laws and regulations made by or adopted by the Episcopal Church for governance of the organization and its members.

Four times a year I send our Bishop a brief update on how I am doing on the journey. So we might ask:

What are Ember Days? Here’s what I’ve gathered from several places on the internet.

      This ancient celebration may have roots in pre-Christian celebrations of sowing, growing, and harvesting crops. Some scholars point to specific Celtic origins, linked to the Celtic custom of observing various festivals at three-month intervals: Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain. These festivals we see today as Candlemas and St. Brigit’s Day for Imbolc, May Day for Beltane, state fairs celebrating the harvest in August for Lughnasadh, and Halloween for Samhain. Some point to Roman festivals, where we implored the gods to bless food production-what can be more basic than food: one in summer for harvest, one in autumn for the vintage, and one in winter for the coming planting of seeds. By the second century, Christians in Rome had baptized these observances and sometime (probably in the third century) a balancing fourth was added for spring. When the church calendar was first developing, the major feasts were Easter, Pentecost, and Ember Days. We didn’t yet celebrate Christmas or Advent, and Lent was just emerging.

      By the fifth century, Ember Saturdays became the quarterly dates for the ordination of deacons and priests. The Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays became days of fasting and supplication not just for the earth, but also for the Church, for its ministers and ministry. They became a time to pray for the Church.

      As the church calendar continued to develop Ember Days receded as Advent, All Saints, and Trinity Sunday, joined Advent and Lent as major hubs of the church’s year.

      I think Ember Days historically represented a special ascetical effort at the beginning of each of the four seasons. This effort took the form especially of the triad already recommended in the Old Testament: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. At the same time, the days were days of thanksgiving for the various seasonal harvests; from the fifth century on they also served for the preparation and conferral of holy orders. In our own times, they have been revitalized to some extent, and in some countries, as days of prayer for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

      When are Ember Days? In the Episcopal Church the Ember Days are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the First Sunday in Lent, after the Day of Pentecost, after Holy Cross Day (September 14), and after the Feast of St. Lucy (December 13).

The Ember Days this fall and next spring are:

2010 September 15, 17, and 18 (the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Holy Cross Day)

2010 December 15, 17, and 18 (the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after December 13)

2011 March 16, 18, 19 (the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the First Sunday in Lent)

2011 June 15, 17, 18 (the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Pentecost)