EMBER-WEEKS, or DAYS, in the episcopal church, are certain seasons of the year, set apart for the imploring God's blessing, by prayer and fasting, upon the ordinances performed in the church at such times.

These ordination-fasts are observed four times in the year, viz. the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent, after WhitSunday, after the fourteenth of September and the thirteenth of December, it being enjoined, by a canon of the church, that deacons and ministers be ordained, or made, only upon the Sundays immediately following these ember-fasts.