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Fasting and Feasting are a traditional part of many different religions, and the practice of the Christian Church is no exception. Most people will find a way to enact both the spirit and the letter of the words “feast day,” and have their Easter and Christmas traditions well-established, but when it comes to “fasts” we may be a bit more confused.
Here, in short is what is meant by these terms.
A day on which we call to remembrance some event or person which showed the victory of God and His people over the forces of evil. On feast days we might eat special foods, refrain from ordinary work (as on Sundays), or keep other customs to remind us of the Saints who have set us an example to follow and the events in the life of our Lord. We keep every Sunday as a feast day because each Sunday is a mini-Easter.
There are different kinds of fast and abstinence days throughout the Church year. On each Friday, Christians from earliest days have refrained from eating flesh meat, in honor of the incarnate God giving his flesh for us on the cross. Every Friday is then a mini-Good Friday. During the penitential season of Lent, many Christians also do this on Wednesdays, making every Wednesday in Lent into a mini-Ash Wednesday.
In addition to this abstinence, the days of Lent, and most especially the days of Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lend and Good Friday at the end, an additional measure of self-control is the custom. These are days of “fasting” as well as “abstinence,” in which the quantity of food is also reduced. Most take the rule that two of a day’s meals will equal in quantity one normal meal, and then one normal meal is also eaten.
Other customs of fasting, that is, customs traditionally used for the purpose of building self-control by way of controlling the body, include such things as giving up the luxuries of drinking alcohol, eating dessert, or smoking, and frivolous entertainment such as movie-watching or dancing and going to parties.
Anglicans do not view the rules of fasts and feasts as “sin” when not observed. Rather, these things are aids to piety and holiness, and are acts of devotion we offer to our Lord. Failure to participate is seen a “fault,” but not “sin.”
Last changed on Friday, July 11, 2008 22:06:22