Lent is the most important and oldest of many days of fasting. It precedes the main church holiday - the Resurrection of Christ or Easter. Internal cleansing from sins and the desire to rectify your life is combined with physical fasting - abstinence from fast food.
Throughout Lent, meat, fish, dairy products, eggs and wine are excluded from the diet. The church charter distinguishes the following degrees of abstinence from food - complete abstinence from food, dry eating (eating raw vegetables and fruits, nuts and bread), "boiling without oil" (boiled or steamed vegetables without vegetable oil), "boiling with oil" (hot food, cooked with vegetable oil), permission for fish or fish caviar.
The first and last weeks of fasting are the most severe time in relation to abstinence from food. In the first two days of fasting, according to the monastery charter, there is complete abstinence from food. Dry eating is allowed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - bread, raw or pickled vegetables and fruits, nuts. On Saturday and Sunday, hot food with vegetable oil is allowed ("jam with oil").
On the remaining days of Lent, in addition to the first and last week, the Church Charter establishes the following fast: on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, dry eating was established, on Tuesday and Thursday it is allowed to eat hot food without vegetable oil ("boiling without oil"), on Saturday and Sunday - hot food with vegetable oil and a small amount of wine ("jam with oil").
On the day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is celebrated on April 7 and can occur on any day of the week, the use of fish is allowed, which can also be tasted on the feast of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem or Palm Sunday. On Lazarev’s Saturday, which is the sixth week of fasting, on the eve of Palm Sunday, the Church Charter gives permission for fish caviar. At Holy Week, the Church establishes a strict fast, as in the first Week. Drying is allowed on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Good Friday, complete abstinence from food is prescribed. On Saturday, on the eve of Easter, a dry eater.
It is difficult for an ordinary layman to fast completely according to the charter, it is necessary to calculate his strength. Orthodox people have a tradition of taking a blessing for a post at a priest who needs to know about your health problems, or hard work that requires a huge expenditure of physical strength. Relief in observance of fasting also applies to older people, children, as well as pregnant and lactating women, who may not fast at all or, for example, refrain only from meat.
Do not forget that fasting is not only a time of abstinence and restriction in food, but also the most important internal post, which includes getting rid of passions, repentance, reconciliation with people, cleansing the soul and abstaining from idle time and entertainment. As the Rev. John Cassian said: "One bodily fast cannot be sufficient for the perfection of the heart and the purity of the body, if the spiritual post is not connected with it."
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