Rogation days are the three days immediately before Ascension Thursday in the Christian liturgical calendar. The term, most frequently encountered in Roman Catholic and Anglican circles, is rarely used today.
The word "Rogation" comes from the Latin verb rogare, meaning "to ask," and was applied to this time of the liturgical year because the Gospel reading for the previous Sunday included the passage "Ask and ye shall receive" (John 16:24). The Sunday itself was often called Rogation Sunday as a result, and marked the start of a three-week period (ending on Trinity Sunday), when Roman Catholic and Anglican clergy did not solemnize marriages (two other such periods of marital prohibition also formerly existed, one beginning on the first Sunday in Advent and continuing through the Octave of Epiphany, or 13 January, and the other running from Septuagesima until Low Sunday, the Sunday after Easter).
The faithful typically observed the Rogation days by fasting in preparation to celebrate the Ascension, and farmers often had their crops blessed by a priest at this time, which always occurs during the spring (in the Northern Hemisphere). Purple vestments, in contrast to the white associated with the rest of the period from Easter to the Sunday before Pentecost, were used at church services conducted during these three days.
The calendar reforms adopted by the Second Vatican Council in 1970 officially eliminated the Rogation days from the church calendar, and the preceding Sunday is now known simply as the Sixth Sunday of Easter. Churches of the Anglican Confession did likewise in 1976, but continue to recognize the three days before Ascension as an optional observance.
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