The Long Nights of Lent

The Storm Moon

Gerry and I were recently inspired -- by Matthew Yglesias -- to read one of John le Carre's early novels, A Murder of Quality, which opens with a mysterious letter and this eerie, mystical phrase:

"I am so afraid of the long nights. . . . " (14)
The long nights? Hmmm? Halloween? The Winter Solstice? Turns out even the esteemed and knowledgeable George Smiley shared our question:

"Ah, the long nights, the long nights."

"What are the long nights?" Smiley asked . . .

"We have a proverb that it always snows at Carne [small fictional town and school in England] in the long nights. That is the traditional term here for the nights of Lent . . . Before the Reformation the monks of the Abbey kept a vigil during Lent between the Offices of Compline and Lauds. . . . We continue to observe it by the saying of Compline during Lent. Compline was the last of the Canonical Day Hours and was said before retiring for the night. . . . Prime was the dawn Office . . . Terce was the third hour of daylight -- that is to say 9:00 a.m. Thus we no longer refer to Morning Prayer, but to Terce. . . . Similarly, during Advent and Lent we say Sext at midday in the Abbey. (56 - 57)

I had to take a break from my reading to work out all the complicated terminology. I encountered numerous list and charts that I have attempted to condense into one straightforward reference guide.

Here in Virgina, the church bells next door to us ring out every hour from 9am - 9pm, with a brief hymn concert included at 3pm every day; the Angelus, at noon and 6pm; and another joyful clamor of bells at 5pm!

Now (I think) I know what I've been hearing from across the way:

Noon = Sext (& the Angelus: traditional Death Knell)
3pm = Nones
5pm = an approximation of the Ave Maria Bell
6pm = Vespers (& the Angelus: the chiming of 3 gap 3 gap 3)


As Willa Cather explains:

". . . six a.m., when he heard the Angelus ringing.  He recovered consciousness slowly, unwilling to let go of a pleasing delusion that he was in Rome. . . . marvelling to hear it rung correctly (nine quick strokes in all, divided into threes, with an interval between); and from a bell with a beautiful tone.  Full, clear, with something bland and suave, each note floated through the air like a globe of silver.  Before the nine strokes were done Rome faded, and behind it he sensed something Eastern, with palm trees, — Jerusalem, perhaps, though he had never been there.”

Death Comes for the Archbishop
42 - 43, emphasis added


Canonical Hours,
going back to the 9th Century:
6pm - 6am = Vigil

divided into four 3 - hour segments or nighttime "watches":
6 - 9pm
9pm - Midnight
Midnight - 3am
3am - 6am

3am - 6am = Matins (last portion of Vigil, beginning of dawn)

5am = Lauds (sunrise, varies seasonally)

6am = Prime (first hour of early morning daylight)

9am = Terce (third hour after 6am)

Noon = Sext (sixth hour after 6am)

3pm = Nones (ninth hour 6am)

6pm = Vespers (sunset, evening)

7pm = Compline (end of the day, before retiring)

the major hours were Matins, Lauds, and Vespers
the minor hours were Terce, Sext, Nones, and Compline

Need a snack during the Long Nights?
Here's a welcoming spot for a Lenten Vigil.
No pancakes during Lent?
But what about waffles?

P.S. Couldn't Resist:

Also Halloween

Thanks Molly!

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