Ember days
They remain a feature of other Western churches, such as in Anglicanism, where the Book of Common Prayer provides for the Ember days, in practice observed in different ways.
According to John Mason Neale in Essays of Liturgiology (1863), Chapter X: "The Latin name has remained in modern languages, though the contrary is sometimes affirmed, Quatuor Tempora, the Four Times.
Thus, there is no occasion to seek after an etymology in embers; or with Nelson, to extravagate still further to the noun ymbren, a recurrence, as if all holy seasons did not equally recur.
In mediæval Germany they were called Weihfasten, Wiegfastan, Wiegefasten, or the like, on the general principle of their sanctity.... We meet with the term Frohnfasten, frohne being the then word for travail.
"Neil and Willoughby in The Tutorial Prayer Book (1913) prefer the view that it derives from the Anglo-Saxon ymbren, a circuit or revolution (from ymb, around, and ryne, a course, running), clearly relating to the annual cycle of the year.
[5] Possibly originating in the agricultural feasts of ancient Rome, they came to be observed by Christians for the sanctification of the different seasons of the year.
The Liber Pontificalis ascribes to Pope Callixtus I (217–222) a law regulating the fast, although Leo the Great (440–461) considers it an Apostolic institution.
The earliest mention of four seasonal fasts is known from the writings of Philastrius, bishop of Brescia (died ca 387) (De haeres.
The Christian observance of the seasonal Ember days had its origin as an ecclesiastical ordinance in Rome and spread from there to the rest of the Western Church.
They were known as the jejunium vernum, aestivum, autumnale and hiernale, so that to quote Pope Leo's words (A.D. 440–461) the law of abstinence might apply to every season of the year.
In order to tie them to the fasts preparatory to the three great festivals of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, a fourth needed to be added "for the sake of symmetry" as the Encyclopædia Britannica 1911 has it.
The precise dates appears to have varied considerably however, and in some cases, quite significantly, the Ember Weeks lost their connection with the Christian festivals altogether.
These dates are given in the following Latin mnemonic: Dat crux Lucia cineres charismata dia quod sit in angaria quarta sequens feria.
Prior to the reforms instituted after the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church mandated fasting and abstinence on all Ember Days,[15] and the faithful were encouraged (though not required) to receive the sacrament of penance whenever possible.
Consequently, concerning their duration, whether they are to last one or more days, or be repeated in the course of the year, norms are to be established by the competent authority, taking into consideration local needs.
