THE OLD ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION SOUTH EAST UK

The fasts, known as "Jejunia quatuor temporum," or "the fast of the four seasons," are rooted in Old Testament practices of fasting four times a year: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Juda, joy, and gladness, and great solemnities: only love ye truth and peace." - Zacharias 8:19

There was also a Jewish custom at the time of Jesus to fast every Tuesday and Thursday of the week. The first Christians amended both of these customs, fasting instead on every Wednesday and Friday: Wednesday because it is the day that Christ was betrayed, and Friday because it is the day that He was slain. The Roman appropriation of the Ember Days involved adding one day: Saturday. This was seen as the culmination of the Ember Week. A special Mass and procession to St. Peter's in Rome was held, and the congregation was invited to "keep vigil with Peter."  Because Apostolic tradition prescribed that ordinations be preceded by fast and prayer (see Acts 13:3), Pope Gelasius I, used Ember Saturdays as the day to confer Holy Orders beginning in 494.

Ember Days were celebrated four times each year. They were tied to the changing of the seasons, but also to the liturgical cycles of the Church. Traditionally, the Ember Days were celebrated with fasting (no food between meals) and half-abstinence, meaning that meat was allowed at one meal per day. (If you're observing the traditional Friday abstinence from meat, then you would observe complete abstinence on an Ember Friday.) In 1966, Pope Paul VI excluded the Ember Days as days of fast and abstinence for Roman Catholics.

Ember Weeks are the complete weeks following:

(1) Holy Cross Day (September 14)

(2) the Feast of St. Lucy (December 13);

(3) the first Sunday in Lent

(4) Pentecost (Whitsunday)

Lenten Embertide (more at: http://www.fisheaters.com/customslent3.html)

Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Quadragesima Sunday (the first Sunday of Lent) are known as "Lenten Embertide," which, depending on the date of Easter, can come as early as February 11, but which is seen as associated with the season of Spring (March, April, May).

Liturgically, the lessons for the Wednesday and Saturday Masses focus on the Commandments given to Moses by God, and on the promises to those who keep them well, all ending with the story of the three lads saved by an angel from Nabuchodonosor' s furnace, as is so for all but Whit Embertide.

The Gospel readings speak of Our Lord discoursing on the sign of Jonas, and how exorcised spirits can return (Matthew 12:38-50), healing the paralytic (John 5:1-15), and the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9).