A Catholic Notebook: Embertide

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Embertide - Winter Ember Days

From the Diocese of Lansing (USA)

On December 18, 2024, Catholics begin their observance of the Winter Ember Days.

What exactly are Ember Days, and why do they matter? Here’s a great explanation by Will Bloomfield, General Counsel of the Diocese of Lansing.

Ember Days are traditionally days of fasting and partial abstinence (no meat except at the principal meal). Each of the four Embertides include three days of fasting and partial abstinence – Ember Wednesday, Ember Friday (fasting and full abstinence), and Ember Saturday.

Ember Days occur quarterly around the beginnings of the four natural seasons, and are meant to focus us on God through His marvelous creation. The Ember Days should also remind us of our obligation to steward the earth.

The four Embertides are in Spring (the week after Ash Wednesday), Summer (after Pentecost Sunday), in Fall (after the Triumph of the Holy Cross), and in Winter (in Advent after the feast of St. Lucy).

The easy way to remember this is the rhyme: Lenty, Penty, Crucy, Lucy.

By the time of the US Bishops’ 1966 Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence, which removed the obligation of fasting during the whole season of Lent, Catholics were already no longer obliged to fast and abstain during ember days or vigils (the day before a feast). Nevertheless, the Bishops suggested that the devout would continue to “find greater Christian joy” in the Church’s liturgical feasts if the faithful continued to embrace these practices. Now that we are more than 50 years from the removal of these obligations, and most Catholics have grown up knowing only two obligatory fast days (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday), many Catholics have found that it remains salutary to step back from the modern world’s comforts and voluntarily embrace Ember Days and other traditional days of fasting and abstinence, particularly Fridays.

Another reason for embracing Ember Days and other days of fasting is that the greats of the Catholic spiritual tradition routinely encourage fasting as a key to unlocking deeper prayer.

St. John Vianney explained the connection this way:

“Unhappily, our hearts are not sufficiently pure and free from all earthly affections. If you take a very clean and very dry sponge, and soak it in water, it will be filled to overflowing; but if it is not dry and clean, it will take up nothing. In like manner, when the heart is not free and disengaged from the things of the earth, it is in vain that we steep it in prayer; it will absorb nothing.”

Jesus Christ also spoke of the need for prayer and fasting, and He modeled it.

So, in this holy season of Advent, when we are all encouraged to embrace prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, consider beginning the quarterly practice of Ember Days. That means embracing fasting and partial abstinence on this Ember Wednesday (December 18), Ember Friday (December 20) and Ember Saturday (December 21).

Art: https://purpleishercovering.com/ember-days-simple-guide/

https://www.fisheaters.com/emberdays.html

In other words:

The Ember Days are four sets of three days of penance, one set at the beginning of each season.
They occur on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of the same week.
Wednesday is memory of Judas’ betrayal.
Friday is in memory of the crucifixion.
Saturday is in memory of the tomb.
The individual feast days aren’t involved with the penance, they’re just reminders of when the Ember Days fall (although two of the feast days are penitential in themselves).
The winter Ember Days follow St. Lucy’s Day (December 13th) and are offered in thanksgiving for the olive harvest, which gives us holy oils.
The spring Ember Days follow Ash Wednesday (movable, forty-six days before Easter) and are offered in thanksgiving for the flowers, which feed the bees, who make the wax, that gives us the altar candles.
The summer Ember Days follow Pentecost (movable, the eighth Sunday after Easter) and are offered in thanksgiving for the wheat harvest, which gives us the Eucharist.
The fall Ember Days follow the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14th) and are offered in thanksgiving for the grape harvest, which gives us the Precious Blood.
If the feast day falls on a Wednesday, the Ember Days begin on the following Wednesday.
The penance is traditionally fasting on Wednesday and Saturday, and fasting and abstinence from meat on Friday.
Current fasting norms in the U.S. permit one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal.
Abstinence is binding from age fourteen. Fasting is binding from age eighteen to fifty-nine (except for those exempt for reasons of age or health).*
Until 1966, the Ember Days were a required observation for all Catholics (except for those exempt for reasons of age or health).
Since 1966, observation is left up to the discretion of the local bishops.**
In the U.S., observation of the Ember Days is recommended, but not mandatory.***