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In the liturgical calendar of the Western Christian churches, Ember days are four separate sets of three days within the same week — specifically, the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday — roughly equidistant in the circuit of the year, that were formerly set aside for fasting and prayer. These days set apart for special prayer and fasting were considered especially suitable for the ordination of clergy. The Ember Days are known in Latin as the quattuor anni tempora (the "four seasons of the year"), or formerly as the ''jejunia quattuor temporum'' ("fasts of the four seasons"). The four quarterly periods during which the ember days fall are called the embertides. == Ember Weeks == The Ember Weeks—the weeks in which the Ember Days occur—are the weeks: *between the third and fourth Sundays of Advent (although the Common Worship lectionary of the Church of England places them in the week following the ''second'' Sunday in Advent); *between the first and second Sundays of Lent; *between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday; and *the week beginning on the Sunday after Holy Cross Day (September 14), the liturgical Third Week of September. Although the Anglican Tradition places the autumnal ember days beginning the Wednesday after September 14.〔1928 Book of Common Prayer: "The Ember Days at the Four Seasons, being the Wednesday, Friday. and Saturday after the First Sunday in Lent, the Feast of Pentecost, September 14, and December 13."〕 Therefore, in a year where September 14 falls on a Monday or Tuesday, the Ember Days for Anglicans are a week sooner than for those of modern day Roman Catholics. ==Origins== Ember days are possibly related to similar observances in pre-Christian Rome. In pagan Rome, offerings were made to various gods and goddesses of agriculture in the hope that the deities would provide a bountiful harvest (the ''feriae messis'' in July), a rich vintage (the ''feriae vindimiales'' in September), or a productive seeding (the ''feriae sementivae'' in December). At first, the Church in Rome had fasts in June, September, and December. 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. When the fourth season was added cannot be ascertained, but Pope Gelasius I (492-496) speaks of all four. The earliest mention of four seasonal fasts is known from the writings of Philastrius, bishop of Brescia (died ca 387) (''De haeres.'' 119). He also connects them with the great Christian festivals. The Christian observation of this seasonal observance of the 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 hiemale'', 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 Leo's time, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday were already days of special observance. 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. From Rome the Ember days gradually spread unevenly through the whole of Western Christendom. In Gaul they do not seem to have been generally recognized much before the 8th century. Their observation in Britain, however, was embraced earlier than in Gaul or Spain, interestingly, and Christian sources connect the Ember Days observations with Augustine of Canterbury, AD. 597, said to be acting under the direct authority of Pope Gregory the Great. 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. Spain adopted them with the Roman rite in the eleventh century. Charles Borromeo introduced them into Milan in the sixteenth century. In the Eastern Orthodox Church ember days have never been observed. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ember days」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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