Fasting for Orthodox Christians is not a simple diet. Along with dietary restrictions, they require particularly strict self-control in actions, speeches, and thoughts. Such behavior should be typical for a believer all year round, and during fasting there is a kind of tempering of character, a test of the will and depth of religious feeling. Is a person able to resist temptations and temptations, if even such a simple test as dietary restriction is not able to endure?
The strictest fast is Great, and it is called so not because it is the longest. Its spiritual significance is great. Each of the forty-eight days is filled with a special meaning.
The observance of Great Lent does not mean that the believer must fast for all six weeks. Orthodox tradition does not tend to demand from the parishioners those restrictions that can harm their he alth. There is a rational and even he althy order of eating during this difficult period for many, regulating what you can eat in fasting by day.
Within two daysyou must abstain from food - on Good Friday, the day of the execution of Jesus, and on the very first, clean Monday.
If the Annunciation does not fall on Holy Week, then this is the day when you can eat fish in Lent.
On ordinary days, the diet is very simple. You can eat bread, vegetables and fruits, raw on weekdays, and cooked in vegetable oil on Saturday and Sunday. To strengthen bodily strength, you can drink some wine, of course, dry.
Another day to eat fish during Lent is Palm Sunday. This is a big holiday, it is correct to call it "The Lord's Entry into Jerusalem." On the eve of this bright day, it is allowed to eat caviar. On Friday of the First Week, they eat kolivo, that is, boiled grains of wheat with honey, which is blessed after the liturgy.
The menu of Great Lent from the second to the fifth week divides the days as follows: on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the restrictions are stricter, you can only drink water, and eat bread and raw vegetable products, on Tuesday and Thursday, believers eat hot food cooked without oil, even vegetable oil.
These are strict church rules, however, excessive pedantry, leading to unpleasant consequences for the body, and especially the kind of pride when a person fasts defiantly, looking down on the less "advanced", is completely unacceptable. It is not the letter that must be observed, but the spirit.
If a parishioner, especially an elderly one, feels worse, then any priest will bless him to change his diet, andwill allow him to decide for himself when to eat fish in Lent.
Women who are expecting a baby, children, and those who suffer from any ailments, as well as those who are on the road or doing hard work, are allowed to eat fast food.
Besides, there is no need to starve at all, the fasting menu can contain such tasty and nutritious foods as potatoes, beans, peas, nuts, cabbage, dryers, mushrooms, berries and many other he althy edibles. But there are also days when you can eat fish in Lent. So there is no need to bring yourself to physical exhaustion. It is much more important not to drink strong drinks, not to get angry, to be kind to people around you, to exclude obscenity, foul language and inappropriate pleasures from everyday life.
