Askesis / Nativity Fast 2026
The Nativity Fast, 2026
Forty days of preparation for the Nativity of Christ, from the day after the feast of the Apostle Philip to the Eve of the Nativity. The dates depend on the calendar your parish keeps.
New calendar
15 November to 24 December
Greek, Antiochian, Romanian, Bulgarian and most OCA parishes. The Nativity is kept on 25 December.
Old calendar
28 November to 6 January
Serbian, Russian, Georgian and Jerusalem parishes, and others on the Julian calendar. The Nativity is kept on 7 January 2027.
Feasts and holy days inside the fast
The Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple: 21 November on the new calendar, 4 December on the old.
Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker: 6 December on the new calendar, 19 December on the old. For many Serbian families it is also the slava, Nikoljdan, kept inside the fast.
The Eve of the Nativity, the Paramony: 24 December on the new calendar, 6 January on the old.
What the fast asks
The Nativity Fast is gentler than Great Lent. Meat, dairy and eggs are set aside throughout; on some days fish is allowed, and on others wine and oil, and Wednesdays and Fridays are kept more strictly. The exact level changes from day to day and differs between Greek and Slavic practice, and in its last days before the Nativity the fast grows stricter.
Your priest's guidance for you personally always comes first. This page states the general discipline of the Church.
See each day's fast in Askesis
Askesis shows the fast for every day of the Nativity Fast in plain food words, for your own church and its calendar, with a walk through the fast one day at a time and the saints of each day, free on iPhone and iPad. Askesis Pro adds 224 fasting recipes and the label scanner.
Read more
Why do Orthodox Christians fast? and How is Askesis checked?
