Orthodox Fasting Calendar:
How the Church Marks the Seasons

The Four Seasons of the Orthodox Fasting Calendar

The Church year holds four extended fasts. Together they shape the entire calendar.

Great Lent

Great Lent begins on Clean Monday — the day after Cheesefare Sunday, which is also called Forgiveness Sunday. It ends on the evening of Lazarus Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday. In length it is forty days, modeled after the forty days the Lord spent fasting in the wilderness.

The Prologue entry for March 9 commemorates the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. They suffered in a freezing lake in the year 320. The Church reads their lives during Great Lent because their endurance mirrors the fast: cold, prolonged, crowned with glory.

St. Caesarius, brother of St. Gregory the Theologian, observed that the Lord fasted forty days because Adam and Eve had perhaps remained in Paradise for forty days before the fall. The New Adam withstood in the hungry desert what the old Adam could not withstand in Paradise's abundance.

During Great Lent the Typikon prescribes the strictest fast. No meat. No dairy. No fish. No wine. No oil. The only exceptions are Saturdays, Sundays, the feast of the Annunciation (March 25 / April 7), and Palm Sunday. On those days fish, wine, and oil are permitted.

The Apostles Fast

The Apostles Fast begins on the Monday after All Saints Sunday — the Monday after Pentecost. It ends on June 29/July 12, the feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.

This fast is variable. Its length depends entirely on the date of Pascha. When Pascha falls early, the Apostles Fast can last nearly six weeks. When Pascha falls late, the fast may be only a few days — or even nonexistent. This is not a defect in the calendar. It is the calendar's design. The Church celebrates the Resurrection for fifty days without fasting, and the Apostles Fast fills the gap between Pentecost and the feast of the two chief apostles.

The Dormition Fast

The Dormition Fast runs from August 1/14 to August 14/27, the eve of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. It lasts two weeks.

This fast is strict, though wine and oil are permitted on Saturdays and Sundays, and on the feast of the Transfiguration (August 6/19), when fish is also permitted. The Procession of the Precious Cross falls on August 1/14, at the very opening of this fast. The Cross is carried in procession because the Church arms herself for the final ascent to the feast of the Mother of God.

The Nativity Fast

The Nativity Fast — also called St. Philip's Fast, because it begins on the day after the feast of St. Philip the Apostle (November 14/27) — runs from November 15/28 to December 24/January 6, the eve of the Nativity of Christ. It lasts forty days.

The first period, November 15 / 28 to December 19 / January 1, is less strict. Fish, wine, and oil are permitted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Wine and oil are permitted on Saturdays and Sundays. The second period, December 20 / January 2 to December 24 / January 6, follows the strict rule of Great Lent.

The Prologue entry for November 15 commemorates the feast of St. Philip. The fast that bears his name begins the next day.

Weekly Fasting and the Orthodox Calendar

Every Wednesday and Friday, the Church fasts.

Wednesday is the day the Lord was betrayed. Friday is the day He was crucified. This is not recent. It is apostolic. The Didache — a first-century Christian text — commands: "Let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and fifth days of the week, but fast on the fourth and preparation day." The "fourth day" is Wednesday. The "preparation day" is Friday.

The weekly fast is less strict than the seasonal fasts. Wine and oil are permitted on most Wednesdays and Fridays. Fish is permitted on certain Wednesdays and Fridays when a major saint is commemorated.

Exceptions exist. There is no fasting during Bright Week, the week after Pascha. There is no fasting on the twelve Great Feasts, even on Wednesday or Friday. There is no fasting during the week after Pentecost, or during the week after the Nativity of Christ.

The Typikon governs these exceptions with precision.

How the Orthodox Fasting Calendar's Rule Works

The Orthodox fasting calendar is not a list of "allowed foods." It is a hierarchy of days.

The Church recognizes several categories of food:

The Typikon resolves collisions between fast and feast. When a major saint's feast falls during a fast, the feast takes precedence. The faithful may eat fish, wine, and oil that day. The Church does not mourn on the day of a saint's glorification.

St. Nikolai Velimirovic writes in the Prologue entry for March 14 on Venerable Benedict: "Eating is a habit and however much one becomes accustomed, so much does one eat." The fasting calendar reshapes the habit by divine design.

The Sundays Before Great Lent

The Orthodox Church does not plunge into Great Lent without warning. Five Sundays precede it, each with a theme that prepares the soul.

The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee comes first. The Church reads the parable of the two men who went up to the temple to pray. The lesson is humility: the Publican went home justified, not the Pharisee. This Sunday is a feast. Fasting is forbidden on the Wednesday and Friday of this week. This is the only week in the year when Wednesday and Friday are non-fast days.

The Sunday of the Prodigal Son follows. The Church meditates on repentance as return. The son squandered his inheritance and came back to his father.

The Sunday of the Last Judgment — Meatfare Sunday — is the third. The Church reads the parable of the sheep and the goats. After this Sunday, meat is no longer eaten until Pascha.

The Sunday of Forgiveness — Cheesefare Sunday — is the fourth and final preparatory Sunday. The Church reads the Lord's words: "If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." At Vespers the faithful ask one another for forgiveness. Dairy is eaten for the last time. Clean Monday begins the fast.

Fasting Is Ascesis, Not Diet

The Church Fathers never present fasting as a health practice. It is ascetical warfare against the passions.

St. John Chrysostom warns that fasting without works is worthless: "Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works. If you see a poor man, take pity on him. If you see an enemy, be reconciled to him. If you see a friend gaining honor, do not envy him."

St. Basil the Great teaches that the fast is not merely abstinence from food, but separation from sin. He writes: "It is not sufficient for a warrior to possess a weapon; he must know how to use it. So too the Christian must not only fast, but fast with understanding."

The Fathers constantly join fasting to prayer and almsgiving. The Lord said: "When thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret." The secret fast is the real one. The public fast is the Pharisee's.

The Calendar and the Old Style

The Orthodox fasting calendar follows the Julian — Old — Calendar for fixed feasts. The dates above are Old Style. Gregorian equivalents appear in parentheses.

The Prologue from Ohrid contains the lives of the saints for every day of the year, including each of the fasting seasons. Reading the Prologue day by day is itself a fast from the noise of the world.

The date of Pascha — and therefore the dates of all moveable feasts, including Great Lent and the Apostles Fast — is determined by the Julian Paschalion as decreed by the First Ecumenical Council in 325. Pascha falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. The equinox is fixed at March 21 by the Julian reckoning. The celebration must follow the Jewish Passover.

Some Orthodox churches adopted the Revised Julian Calendar in the 1920s. The Church has always regarded this as an innovation. The traditional Orthodox fasting calendar preserves the Old Style dates and the traditional computation of Pascha.