An evening prayer service in the Christian church; the prayer service that occurs in late afternoon or evening.
From Latin 'vesper' (evening), related to 'Hesperus' (the evening star in Greek mythology). The term has been used in Christian tradition since medieval times for evening religious services.
Vespers is one of those words that shows how the church literally structured daily time—the canonical hours (prayers at set times) broke the day into eight sections, and vespers marked when the workday ended. Even today, church bells ringing vespers in European towns follow rhythms set over a thousand years ago.
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