Forget We Not The Ember Days

Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493 (Wikipedia)

The Personal Ordinariates (Walsingham, Chair of St Peter and Southern Cross) continue the ancient practices of the Ember Days.

From the Catholic Herald:

The origin of the term English term ‘ember’ is unclear; it may derive from the Old English ‘ymbren’, meaning a circuit or revolution. Other European languages use some version of the Latin term, ‘Quatuor tempora’, ‘four times’. These celebrations may have been brought to England by St Augustine of Canterbury, and seem to have become established here before they spread from Rome to France and elsewhere.

Catholic Encyclopedia:

Ember days (corruption from Lat. Quatuor Tempora, four times) are the days at the beginning of the seasons ordered by the Church as days of fast and abstinence. They were definitely arranged and prescribed for the entire Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) for the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after 13 December (S. Lucia), after Ash Wednesday, after Whitsunday, and after 14 September (Exaltation of the Cross). The purpose of their introduction, besides the general one intended by all prayer and fasting, was to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy.

The dates are given in the following Latin mnemonic:

Sant Crux, Lucia, Cineres, Charismata Dia

Ut sit in angaria quarta sequens feria

Holy Cross, Lucy, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost,

are when the quarter holidays follow.

Or in an English rhyme:

Fasting days and Emberings be

Lent, Whitsun, Holyrood, and Lucie.

Or,

Lenty, Penty, Crucy, Lucy.

From The Torch:

A fun quirk of history makes it especially fitting to observe Ember Days by eating a certain type of Japanese food. The very term “Ember Days” comes into English from a corruption of the Latin Quatuor Tempora (“four times”). Another surprising derivative is the Japanese tempura. In the 16th century, Portuguese missionaries to Japan observed Ember Days by eating battered seafood or vegetables (which fit the program for meat-free fasting). This style came to be associated with Ember Days, and took on its related name. The dish quickly spread to most of Southern Japan and makes a wonderful way to observe the Ember Days fast.