Any fast is a kind of complex for the spiritual approach of a person to the divine essence. The ascetic practice of the Orthodox Church created a universal structure of food consumption so that consciousness could more easily reach the Highest Abode.
Fasting on Wednesday and Friday is a means of thinning the coarse bodily shell through abstinence in food and sexual relations. Such a spiritual change allows one to move to higher levels of communication with the Holy Spirit through repentance, mercy and reading prayers.
The meaning of fasting days
Even before the advent of Christianity, people observed two-day food abstinence. The Enlighteners clearly understood that it was impossible to eradicate the habit from the minds of those who had just adopted a new faith. Therefore, the Church agreed to modify the old traditions and introduce them into the Orthodox faith.
This ancient practice is mentioned already in the New Testament and in the early Christian manuscript "Didache".
- These fast days Weeks in Orthodoxy were timed to coincide with tragic moments in the history of Christianity. Believers who abstain from food and sex pay tribute to the episode when God's Son was betrayed by the disciple Judas, sentenced to martyrdom and crucified on the cross.
- The mourning meaning is not unique. Fast days incorporate the principles of year-round protection of the consciousness of a person immersed in the Orthodox faith. This is how a Christian shows God that he has not lost his attentiveness, strictly observes the principles of the Church and is always ready to join the fight against unclean creatures.
- The constant practice of fasting strengthens the physical body, increases tone and drives away weak, groundless thoughts from the mind. Such abstinence is often compared to training the body, as a result of which it becomes stronger, stronger and more resilient.
Lenten food
Dry eating practice
An Orthodox believer is obliged to observe the practice of fasting on every third and fifth day of the week, giving up eggs, meat products, fish and milk. Such abstinence, lasting 24 hours, involves dry eating - food (nuts, various fruits) prepared using a cold method.
The degree of severity is determined by the spiritual superior or the person personally. However, when preparing a Lenten diet, it is necessary to take into account the lifestyle and general health of the believer.
The priests do not have a unanimous opinion on this matter. The clergy adheres to one of two positions:
- Strict fasting is characterized by the consumption of bread, dried, raw vegetables without using vegetable oil. Only berry juices and water are suitable for drinking; wine is strictly prohibited.
- A less restrictive option allows you to eat baked foods. Here believers can drink instant teas and coffee.
The Orthodox Church has established weekly fasting days to improve the physical and spiritual condition of the laity. With the help of the practice of abstinence, a person becomes purer and comes closer to realizing the power of the Creator. Observing fasting in the world is a voluntary matter for everyone, and does not carry mandatory principles.
Watch the video about fasting on Wednesday and Friday
Man is a spiritual-physical being of dual nature. The Holy Fathers said that the body fits the soul like a glove fits a hand.
Therefore, any fast - one-day or many days - is a set of means to bring a person closer both spiritually and physically to God - in the fullness of human nature.
Figuratively speaking, a person can be compared to a rider on a horse. The soul is the rider, and the body is the horse. Let's say a horse is being trained for a race at a hippodrome. She is given certain food, training, etc. Because the ultimate goal of the jockey and his horse is to reach the finish line first. Much the same can be said about the soul and body. The ascetic experience of the Orthodox Church, with God's help, created a universal toolkit of spiritual, physical and nutritional means so that the rider-soul and horse-body could reach the finish line - the Kingdom of Heaven.
On the one hand, we should not neglect food fasting. Let us remember why the holy forefathers Adam and Eve committed the Fall... Let us give a rather crude and primitive, far from complete interpretation: because they violated the food fast of abstinence - God's commandment not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This, it seems to me, is a lesson for all of us.
On the other hand, food fasting should not be perceived as an end in itself. This is just a means to thin our gross material flesh through certain abstinence in food, in drinking alcohol, in marital relations so that the body becomes light, purified and serves as a faithful companion to the soul for acquiring the main spiritual virtues: prayer, repentance, patience, humility, mercy, participation in the Sacraments of the Church, love for God and neighbor, etc. That is, food fasting is the first step in ascent to the Lord. Without a qualitative spiritual change-transformation of his soul, he turns into a diet that is sterile for the human spirit.
Once upon a time, His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and All Ukraine said a wonderful phrase that encapsulated the essence of any fast: “The main thing during Lent is not to eat each other”. That is, this statement can be interpreted as follows: “If you, abstaining from certain actions and food, do not cultivate virtues in yourself with God’s help, and the main one is love, then your fast is fruitless and useless.”
Regarding the question in the title of the article. In my opinion, starting the day in the evening refers to the liturgical day, i.e. daily cycle services: hours, vespers, matins, Liturgy, which, in essence, are one service, divided into parts for the convenience of believers. By the way, in the days of the first Christians they were one service. But the food fast must correspond to the calendar day - that is, from morning to morning (the liturgical day is from evening to evening).
First, liturgical practice confirms this. We don’t start eating meat, milk, cheese and eggs on the evening of Holy Saturday (if we follow the logic of allowing fasting in the evening). Or on Christmas and Epiphany Eve we do not eat the same foods in the evening, on the eve of the Nativity of Christ and Holy Epiphany (Epiphany). No. Because fasting is permitted the day after the completion of the Divine Liturgy.
If we consider the norm of the Typikon on Wednesday and the heel, then, referring to the 69th Rule of the Holy Apostles, fasting on Wednesday and Friday was equated to the days of Great Lent and allowed eating food in the form of dry food once a day after 15.00. But dry eating, and not a complete permission from fasting.
Of course, in modern realities the practice of one-day (Wednesday and Friday) fasting is relaxed for the laity. If this is not the period of one of the four annual fasts, then you can eat fish and plant foods with oil; if Wednesday and Friday fall during the fasting period, then fish is not eaten on this day.
But the main thing, dear brothers and sisters, is for us to remember that with our souls and hearts we must deepen in the memory of the day on Wednesday and Friday. Wednesday – man’s betrayal of his God the Savior; Friday is the day of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if, on the advice of the holy fathers, in the midst of the hectic bustle of life, we make a prayer stop on Wednesday and Friday for five, ten minutes, an hour, as long as we can, and think: “Stop, today Christ suffered and died for me,” then This memory, combined with prudent fasting, will have a beneficial and saving effect on the soul of each of us.
About when the code starts and how long it lasts Lent, even people who are very far from the Church know now. They talk about Pentecost on television, cafes and restaurants advertise Lenten menus, in the evening bell ringing convenes believers for penitential services. But only those who visit the temple regularly know that there is another equally important fast - Wednesday and Friday throughout the year. Higumen Theognost (Pushkov), candidate of theology, cleric of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Since ancient times, the Orthodox Christian Church has observed fasting on Wednesday and Friday. Evidence of this fast is found in written Christian monuments of ancient times (Didache, early 2nd century; Tertullian, 3rd century). However, we often carry out certain “ritual instructions” without thinking about their meaning, thereby incurring the accusation of “formalism”. This accusation is partly fair, because all Christian actions and rituals, deeds and exploits must be meaningful.
But before we talk about the features of fasting on Wednesday and Friday, it is necessary to briefly clarify the very essence of fasting (as such). Fasting, in the understanding of Christians, can have a threefold meaning: either it is an expression of repentant “mourning”, when a person, realizing his sins, refuses fine food, mourns his spiritual state, praying to God for cleansing.
Penitential mourning
The 3rd century Christian writer Tertullian writes that it is common for a penitent to “immerse his spirit in lamentation, to reflect with bitterness on what he has sinned, to eat only simple bread and water - not for the stomach, but to support life, to do more often, during fasting, prayers, groaning, crying, crying out to the Lord God day and night" ( Tertullian. About repentance). We see that fasting here is an expression of grief and a plea for forgiveness. But here it is important that this grief be “natural” and not feigned. The same Tertullian sarcastically ridicules those who limit themselves only in terms of food, remaining in everything else “as always”: “But is it really right for us to pray for the forgiveness of sins in a pink dress and purple? Will you say: “Give me some pins to decorate your hair and let ...the servant will put on my lips and cheeks something that gives a fake shine, artificial color"? Besides, will you look for pleasant baths, settling in the gardens, or by the sea? Will you multiply the expenses on your toilets? ... And if someone asks you, for to whom you are preparing this, say: “I have sinned against God and I fear to perish forever. Therefore, now I am weakened and lamented and tormented, so that I can be reconciled with God, whom I have offended with sin." Who would recognize in you, dressed in silk, a repentant soul?" writes Tertullian.
Prayer
The second type of fasting is a prayer for something or someone. When a neighbor voluntarily shares a person’s pain, imposing restrictions on himself in order to somehow help or comfort his neighbor. The Apostle Paul said about this: “If food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble” (1 Cor. 8:13). Also, from ancient times, Christians imposed fasting on themselves before decisive events in their lives. It was a fast that helped them weed out the excesses of worldly concerns in order to focus in prayer on vital things.
Participation in Christ's suffering on the cross
And the third type of fasting is our participation in the suffering of Christ on the cross. The basis of the Christian faith is the belief that the world and man are redeemed from damnation and hell by the Cross, death and Resurrection of Christ. This is the greatest joy of humanity, but the price of this joy is the greatest pain that God Incarnate endured on the Cross. The price of our salvation is the injustice that God endured at the hands of men. On the days when the Church remembers these terrible and for us saving sufferings of Christ, fasting is prescribed. These days of fasting are called “The Fast of the Passion of Christ.” This is the name of the last six days before Easter and the days of Wednesday and Friday. Divine services these days are focused on the remembrance of the sufferings of the Savior of the world on the cross.
Like any fast, the fast of Christ’s suffering consists not only of abstaining from gourmet food. It is not fitting for a person who mentally experiences everything that happened on Calvary to have fun, talk idle talk, or indulge himself in carnal pleasures. Therefore, along with abstaining from food, the fasting person must abstain from amusements, idleness, and marital intimacy. After all, these are days of mourning.
Why are these two days a week set for fasting - Wednesday and Friday?
Fasting on these days is prescribed for every week of the year, with the exception of Bright Week (immediately after Easter) and the week after Trinity, as well as Christmastide (days from Christmas to the Baptism of Christ), the week of the publican and the Pharisee, and Maslenitsa, when the "godmother" is canceled. "theme in worship.
These two days are especially associated with the suffering of Christ: Wednesday is the day of Judas' betrayal, when he went to the Jewish elders and offered “his services.” Friday is the day of the death of the Savior of the world on the cross, the day when He said, going to suffer: “At this hour I have come into the world,” and, dying an atoning death on the Cross, exclaimed: “It is finished”!
On Wednesday we should reflect on our place in the Church - in the community of Christ's disciples. Closeness to the Savior of the world did not become a guarantee of salvation, and one of the disciples fell away and betrayed. Who are we in the community of Christ? Does our heart always remain faithful to God? Do we always follow His ways with joy and love, or are we afraid to admit to ourselves that sin is more kind to us than virtue? Wednesday is the central day of the week, a symbol of the crossroads life paths. This is a day of prayerful reflection when, peering at the already clearing strokes of Calvary (which clearly looms on Friday), we pray to God to give us the strength to bear our life’s cross and remain faithful to Christ to the end. We ask God for strength to always do right choice without deviating from the path of salvation and not daring to justify your sins later.
Orthodox church calendar fasts and meals for 2019 indicating and brief description multi-day and one-day fasts and continuous weeks.
Church Orthodox calendar of fasts and meals for 2019
Fasting is not in the belly, but in the spirit
Popular proverb
Nothing in life comes without difficulty. And in order to celebrate the holiday, you need to prepare for it.
In the Russian Orthodox Church there are four multi-day fasts, fasting on Wednesday and Friday throughout the year (except for a few weeks), and three one-day fasts.
In the first four days of the first week of Great Lent (from Monday to Thursday) evening worship The Great (Repentant) Canon is being read, the work of the brilliant Byzantine hymnographer St. Andrew of Crete (8th century).
ATTENTION! Below you will find information about dry eating, food without oil and days of complete abstinence from food. All this is a long-standing monastic tradition, which even in monasteries cannot always be observed in our time. Such strictness of fasting is not for the laity, and the usual practice is abstaining from eggs, dairy and meat foods during fasting and during strict fasting also abstaining from fish. For all possible questions and about your individual measure of fasting, you need to consult your confessor.
Dates are indicated according to the new style.
Calendar of fasts and meals for 2019
| Periods | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
|
from March 11 to April 27 |
xerophagy | hot without oil | xerophagy | hot without oil | xerophagy | hot with butter | hot with butter | |
| Spring meat eater | fish | fish | ||||||
|
from June 24 to July 11 |
hot without oil | fish | xerophagy | fish | xerophagy | fish | fish | |
| Summer carnivore | xerophagy | xerophagy | ||||||
|
from 14 to 27 August |
xerophagy | hot without oil | xerophagy | hot without oil | xerophagy | hot with butter | hot with butter | |
| Autumn meat eater | xerophagy | xerophagy | ||||||
| from November 28, 2019 to January 6, 2020 | until December 19 | hot without oil | fish | xerophagy | fish | xerophagy | fish | fish |
| December 20 – January 1 | hot without oil | hot with butter | xerophagy | hot with butter | xerophagy | fish | fish | |
| January 2-6 | xerophagy | hot without oil | xerophagy | hot without oil | xerophagy | hot with butter | hot with butter | |
| Winter meat eater | fish | fish | ||||||
in 2019
The Savior himself was led by spirit into the desert, was tempted by the devil for forty days and did not eat anything during these days. The Savior began the work of our salvation with fasting. Great Lent is a fast in honor of the Savior Himself, and the last, Holy Week of this forty-eight-day fast was established in honor of the memory of last days earthly life, suffering and death of Jesus Christ.
Fasting is observed with particular strictness during the first and Holy weeks.
On Clean Monday, complete abstinence from food is customary. The rest of the time: Monday, Wednesday, Friday - dry food (water, bread, fruits, vegetables, compotes); Tuesday Thursday - hot food no oil; Saturday, Sunday – food with vegetable oil.
Fish is allowed on Annunciation Day Holy Mother of God and in Palm Sunday. Fish caviar is allowed on Lazarus Saturday. IN Good Friday You cannot eat food before the Shroud is taken out.
in 2019
On Monday of the Week of All Saints, the Fast of the Holy Apostles begins, established before the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul. This post is called summer. The continuation of fasting varies depending on how early or late Easter occurs.
It always starts on All Saints Monday and ends on July 12th. The longest Petrov fast consists of six weeks, and the shortest one is a week and a day. This fast was established in honor of the Holy Apostles, who, through fasting and prayer, prepared for the worldwide preaching of the Gospel and prepared their successors in the work of saving service.
Strict fasting (dry eating) on Wednesday and Friday. On Monday you can have hot food without oil. On other days - fish, mushrooms, cereals with vegetable oil.
in 2019
From August 14 to August 27, 2019.
A month after the Apostolic Fast, the multi-day Dormition Fast begins. It lasts two weeks - from August 14 to 27. With this post the Church calls us to imitate Mother of God, who, before Her relocation to heaven, incessantly remained in fasting and prayer.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday – dry eating. Tuesday, Thursday – hot food without oil. On Saturday and Sunday, food with vegetable oil is allowed.
On the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord (August 19), fish is allowed. Fish day in Assumption, if it falls on Wednesday or Friday.
in 2019
Christmas (Filippov) fast. At the end of autumn, 40 days before the great feast of the Nativity of Christ, the Church calls us to winter fasting. It is called both Filippov, because it begins after the day dedicated to the memory of the Apostle Philip, and Rozhdestvensky, because it occurs before the feast of the Nativity of Christ.
This fast was established in order for us to offer a grateful sacrifice to the Lord for the collected earthly fruits and to prepare for a gracious union with the born Savior.
The charter about food coincides with the charter of Peter's Fast, until the day of St. Nicholas (December 19).
If the Feast of the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary falls on Wednesday or Friday, then fish is allowed. After the day of remembrance of St. Nicholas and before the forefeast of Christmas, fish is allowed on Saturday and Sunday. On the eve of the feast, you cannot eat fish on all days; on Saturday and Sunday - food with oil.
On Christmas Eve you cannot eat food until the first star appears, after which it is customary to eat sochivo - wheat grains boiled in honey or boiled rice with raisins.
Solid weeks in 2019
Week– week from Monday to Sunday. These days there is no fasting on Wednesday and Friday.
There are five continuous weeks:
Christmastide– from January 7 to January 17,
Publican and Pharisee– 2 weeks before
Cheese (Maslenitsa)– week before (no meat)
Easter (Light)– week after Easter
- week after Trinity.
Fasting on Wednesday and Friday
Weekly fast days are Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday, fasting was established in memory of the betrayal of Christ by Judas, on Friday - in memory of the suffering on the cross and death of the Savior. On these days of the week, the Holy Church prohibits the consumption of meat and dairy foods, and during the week of All Saints before the Nativity of Christ, one should also abstain from fish and vegetable oil. Only when the days of celebrated saints fall on Wednesday and Friday is it permitted vegetable oil, and on the biggest holidays, such as Intercession, fish.
Those who are sick and engaged in hard work are allowed some relief, so that Christians have the strength to pray and do the necessary work, but eating fish on the wrong days, and especially the full permission of fasting, is rejected by the rules.
One-day posts
Epiphany Christmas Eve– January 18, on the eve of the Epiphany. On this day, Christians prepare for cleansing and consecration with holy water on the feast of Epiphany.
Beheading of John the Baptist- 11 September. This is the day of remembrance and death of the great prophet John.
Exaltation of the Holy Cross- September 27. The memory of the Savior's suffering on the cross for the salvation of the human race. This day is spent in prayer, fasting, and contrition for sins.
One-day posts– days of strict fasting (except Wednesday and Friday). Fish is prohibited, but food with vegetable oil is allowed.
Orthodox holidays. About meals on holidays
According to the Church Charter, there is no fasting on the holidays of the Nativity of Christ and Epiphany, which happened on Wednesday and Friday. On Christmas and Epiphany Eves and on the holidays of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord and the Beheading of John the Baptist, food with vegetable oil is allowed. On the feasts of the Presentation, Transfiguration of the Lord, Dormition, Nativity and Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, Her Entry into the Temple, the Nativity of John the Baptist, the Apostles Peter and Paul, John the Theologian, which occurred on Wednesday and Friday, as well as in the period from Easter to Trinity on Wednesday and Friday Fish allowed.
When marriage is not performed
On the eve of Wednesday and Friday of the whole year (Tuesday and Thursday), Sundays (Saturday), twelve days, temple and great holidays; in continuation of the posts: Veliky, Petrov, Uspensky, Rozhdestvensky; in continuation of Christmastide, on Meat Week, during Cheese Week (Maslenitsa) and on Cheese Week; during Easter (Bright) week and on the days of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross - September 27.
- You just read the article Church orthodox calendar for 2019. If you want to know more about Orthodox posts, then pay attention to the article.
Christian Orthodox faith provides for a number of fasting days and weeks a year, when, thanks to abstinence in food during fasting, a simple Christian approaches God, cleansing himself not only physically, but also spiritually.
IN Orthodox rules Holy Apostles said that “If Orthodox Christian does not fast during Lent or on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, except holidays, then the laity, according to the 69th rule of the holy apostles, are excommunicated from communion of the Holy Mysteries, and the priests are expelled. Relaxation in fasting is allowed for the infirm, sick, and elderly..."
That is, if an Orthodox Christian does not observe all multi-day and one-day fasts throughout the year, he is not allowed to receive communion, and priests are generally deprived of their rank.
At the same time, pregnant women, children under 14 years of age, sick people and the elderly may not observe fasting or observe it not fully, which is still better to consult with a priest in the local Orthodox church.
A good Christian must observe the Orthodox Lent before Easter - the Feast of the Feasts of the Resurrection of Christ, during the fast of the holy apostles Peter and Paul - Peter's Fast, during the Fast of the Most Holy Theotokos - Dormition Fast from August 14 to 27, Nativity Fast - Philip's Fast before the Nativity from November 28 until January 6.
And Orthodox man must observe fasting on Epiphany Eve on January 18, on the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist - September 11, on the day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross - September 27, as well as throughout the year fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, except for the weeks of continuous Orthodox weeks and Christmastide from 7 to January 18.
The meaning of multi-day fasts and fasting days on Wednesdays and Fridays is that by abstaining from food, limiting their own desires and appetites in the literal and figurative sense of the word, an Orthodox Christian becomes like Jesus Christ (remember his forty-day hermitage in the desert, where He fought with Satan and temptations) and pays tribute to his suffering, which the Son of God endured for the sake of us, mere mortal people, in order to bestow us with immortality - eternal life in Paradise in Heaven as a reward for a righteous lifestyle.
IN modern world Orthodox fasting is not observed as strictly as it was before the revolution in Russia, when the positions of the Orthodox Church and Orthodox canons were strong and respected. Today, the Orthodox Church does not insist on absolute, meticulous compliance with all restrictions regarding the Lenten menu, both during multi-day and one-day fasts.
At the same time, no one canceled the fasts themselves for a believer. But…
If, for example, a working person simply does not have the physical and material ability to observe all the canons of Orthodox Lent, then he can himself, or better yet, with the blessing and permission of the priest, make indulgences for himself according to the Lenten menu during the days and weeks of Lent.
After all the main objective any Orthodox fast does not exhaust the body, does not bring it to exhaustion and anorexia - no!
The main goal and task of Orthodox fasting is to strengthen a person in the Faith through renunciation, temporary renunciation of some physical and food joys, the pleasures of life.
How can a person prove his love and faith to the Lord God? Simple and very difficult at the same time: by not violating the 10 commandments of God, with the help of daily Orthodox prayer, by periodically visiting the temple of God - the Orthodox Church and by observing Orthodox fasts and separate fasting days almost every week.
Recipes and menus for Orthodox fasting and fasting days must be individual for each person - they must take into account the state of his health, lifestyle, and also - let's not be hypocrites - the degree of a person's faith in God.
Lenten menu on fasting days
Fast days of the week - Wednesdays and Fridays - were established in honor of the memory of the suffering of Jesus Christ before the crucifixion on the Cross: on Wednesday Judas betrayed Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver, and on Friday the Son of God was executed - crucified on the Cross, where he died on the same day .
Their observance disciplines a believer and constantly reminds him of the presence of God in his life.
My husband and I, for example, always observe (at least I try very hard) fast days - Wednesday and Friday. Because There is simply not enough strength or spirit to observe long Orthodox fasts - we can hold out for a maximum of 1 week and that’s it.
And by observing fast days every week, we at least do something to please God.
What should our Lenten menu be like on fasting days of the week - Wednesdays and Fridays?
So, on fast days of the week on Wednesdays and Fridays, an Orthodox Christian should, as far as possible, avoid eating fast foods.
What is fast food? FAST FOOD is any food of animal origin that contains proteins and fats of animal origin, as well as any products and dishes containing at least some products of animal origin. Specifically, lean food is pork and beef, butter, eggs, sour cream, milk, cottage cheese, cheese, dumplings, egg pasta, fat, non-lenten cookies (cooked with eggs, sour cream, milk, fat), cakes, pastries, cream , ice cream, sausages, sausages, lard...
All these and many other dishes containing proteins and fats of animal origin are fast dishes by definition and cannot be eaten on fasting days almost every week - on Wednesdays and Fridays.
The only thing you can eat on fasting days on Wednesdays and Fridays is vegetable oil, fish, vegetables, fruits, honey, jam, cereals, nuts, dried fruits, potatoes, cabbage, and herbs. So we can say with full responsibility that observing Orthodox fasting on fasting days is beneficial to the Christian himself, because plant food- this is healthy food that cleanses not only the body, but also relieves the soul from sin.
And one more thing: if during the Great Orthodox Lent before Easter a Christian is prohibited from entering into a close relationship with his spouse, then this restriction does not apply to daytime fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Thus, every Orthodox believer decides for himself whether or not to observe fast days week by week on Wednesday and Friday.
In general, taking into account the fact that our country has been “atheistic” for a long time, every Orthodox believer must gradually come to a conscious understanding that observing Orthodox fasts is necessary, first of all, for himself...
