Days and Seasons of Fasting
The structure of fasting in the Orthodox Church is rather complex.
There are various degrees of fasting and abstinence involving
different categories of foods. Sometimes a feast will fall on a fast
day, causing the fast to be lightened on that day. In addition,
Saturdays and Sundays during fast seasons are always less strict than
other days. Here are the basics.
Categories of abstinence, from least strict to most strict:
- Meat and meat products, including poultry
- Dairy products and eggs
- Fish with backbones
- Wine and oil
Whatever foods are allowed, we are expected to stop short of eating
to fullness when fasting. In addition to fasting from foods, believers
try to limit the indulgence of their senses and participation in
worldly entertainments on fast days.
Days of fasting:
Throughout the year, with the exception of the Nativity season (from
Nativity to Theophany) and Bright Week (the week after Pascha), all
Wednesdays and Fridays are fast days. On Wednesday we fast in
remembrance of the Lord's betrayal in the Garden, and on Friday we
fast in remembrance of His Passion and death on the Cross. Fasting is
usually from all categories above, but when a major saint's day or
feast falls on a Wednesday or Friday, the fast is reduced to allow
wine and oil and sometimes fish.
In addition, a few days of the year are designated as days of
complete abstinence: the Beheading of John the Baptist, the Elevation
of the Cross, the Eves of Nativity and Theophany, Holy Friday and Holy
Saturday.
Also, Orthodox Christians are required to abstain from all food and
drink during the time prior to partaking of the Holy Eucharist.
Seasons of fasting:
There are four major seasons of fasting in the Orthodox year:
- The Nativity fast, also called Advent or Little Lent. This
begins forty days before Nativity, on November 15 (Nov. 28). Wine
and oil are permitted throughout this fast and fish is permitted on
many days.
- Great Lent, beginning on Monday seven weeks before Pascha. This
is a strict fasting period, with abstinence from certain meals
prescribed as well as from all categories of foods listed above.
Technically separate from but contiguous with Great Lent is Holy
Week, the six days before Pascha. Fasting is even stricter here
than during Great Lent.
- The Apostles' fast. This fast begins on the Monday after All
Saints, which is the Sunday after Pentecost, and ends with the
feast of Ss. Peter and Paul on June 29 (July 12). The length of the
fast is variable because of the variable date of Pascha.
- The Dormition fast begins on August 1 (Aug. 14) and ends with
the Feast of the Dormition on August 15 (Aug. 28).
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