For Orthodox believers Lent is a long-awaited period in which a person thinks about spirituality. The whole fast is considered strict, and the first week of Great Lent is marked by separate instructions on abstinence from certain food products, as well as the statutory rules for worship.
The answer to the question of how to fast fast in the first week of Great Lent consists of two main components. You must understand that fasting is not just a diet due to a person’s refusal of food of animal origin (meat, eggs, milk and derived products). In addition to the bodily component of abstinence, there is an equally important spiritual aspect.
To begin with, we consider the practical recommendations of the Church regarding what nutrition rules are provided for in the first week of the Holy Pentecost. Many people are afraid of this particular point in the storage of posts.
Bodily component
By the bodily component one can understand the "menu calendar" of a person in the first week of Lent. Church statutes provide for strict fasting in the early days. On the first day, many monks completely refuse food, on the second - they eat bread and water, the third, fourth and fifth days - dry eating. This practice is rarely applied to people living in the world. Therefore, the Church recommends that an Orthodox person take food in the form of dry eating in the first five days of fasting in the amount necessary to maintain human activity (many Orthodox people need to eat in order to have the strength for physical labor, because work can be different).
In any case, in the first week of fasting (in the first five days) you can not eat animal products. In addition, fish, vegetable oil and boiled foods are prohibited: these prohibitions are just related to dry eating. In the early days, you can eat vegetables and fruits, nuts, food that is not cooked. At the same time, it is permissible to eat baked food without vegetable oil, for example, baked potatoes.
If a person has health problems, it is necessary to talk with the priest, so that the latter, if necessary, gives a blessing for eating boiled food and vegetable oil.
On Saturday and Sunday of the first week of Lent, relaxation in food abstinence is supposed. It is allowed to eat cooked food with vegetable oil. On Saturday of the first week, colivo is consecrated in temples - boiled rice with honey mixed with dried fruits, marmalade and other lean sweets.
