Understanding the September Ember Days with the Help of the Golden Legend

A Jewish observance of the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkoth

The Ember Days seem to be making a minor comeback despite their lack of a fixed home in the 1970 Roman Missal. A few years ago, they were used to atone for clerical abuses; and this week, they are being used by Sycamore Trust, a group of Notre Dame alumni and faculty, as an “initiative of prayer and penance for Notre Dame’s students, alumni, faculty, and administration.”

The Ember Days have been part of the Roman liturgical tradition since time immemorial, and as such they have invited much reflection. Today, let us turn to the medieval author of the Golden Legend, Bl. Jacobus de Voragine (1230-98), for help in how to observe today and tomorrow, Ember Friday and Ember Saturday in September. Jacobus offers several thoughts, which I consolidate into three categories: looking back; looking out; and looking in.

Looking Back

Jacobus finds it commendable that we incorporate aspects of the Hebrew calendar into our liturgical and ascetical lives. Such an incorporation is not a superstitious or slavish Judaizing of the New Covenant, but an allegorical attempt to fulfill, in the path of Our Lord, every jot and tittle of the Law. It also pays due respect to our spiritual ancestors in the right key.

For the Jews fasted four times in the year, that is to wit, before Easter [Passover], before Whitsunside [the Jewish feast of Shavuoth], before the setting of the Tabernacle in the Temple in September [Yom Kippur and Sukkoth], and before the dedication of the Temple in December [Hanukkah].

The readings for the September Ember day confirm this focus on fulfilling Jewish feasts. In the Roman Missal, the first lesson (Lev. 23, 26-32) and the Epistle (Heb. 9, 2-12) are about the Feast of the Atonement or Yom Kippur, and the second lesson (Lev. 23, 39-43) is about the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkoth.

The High Priest on Yom Kippur

Looking Out

In the Northern hemisphere, Autumn is harvest time. For Jacobus, this season of plenty is an invitation for thanksgiving and a renewed committed to good deeds:

We fast also in September before Michaelmas, and this is the third fast, so that in this time the fruits are gathered and we should render to God the fruits of good works.

A Harvest Thanksgiving Mass in the Roman Campagna, 1843, by the Danish painter Jørgen Sonne (1801-90)

Looking Within

Combining the qualities of seasonal weather with the four temperaments, Jacobus sees an opportunity for addressing particular vices throughout the course of the year. Since autumn is “cold and dry” (the poor man, mind you, did not live in the great state of Texas), he concludes that in “harvest we ought to fast to repress the drought of pride.” The September Embertide, in other words, is especially for cholerics, while the Whitsun Embertide is for sanguines, the Lenten Embertide for melancholics, and the December Embertide for phlegmatics. But of course, since not only cholerics must conquer pride, this week pertains to everyone else as well. 

The Choleric Temperament