Askesis / Why do Orthodox Christians fast?
Orthodox Christians fast to turn back to God, with prayer and mercy, on the way to the Church’s feasts, above all Pascha, the feast of Christ’s Resurrection. Fasting does not buy God’s love; it is one way the Church helps her people follow Christ.
"Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down Death by death, and upon those in the tomb bestowing life." The Church sings this on Pascha night, and every Orthodox fast is lived in its light. The Son of God became man for our salvation, was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate and rose on the third day. The Church is his body ("Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually," 1 Corinthians 12:27). The Holy Spirit, given at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4), lives in the Church and gathers her people around the Eucharist (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). Fasting is one of the ways the Church helps her people walk toward the risen Lord. It is not a diet, and it is not a test.
Fasting begins with repentance and with God’s mercy, not with a rule. "Turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping," says the Lord through the prophet Joel, and "rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for he is merciful and compassionate, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy" (Joel 2:12-13). Christ tells of a Pharisee who prayed, "I fast twice a week," and of a tax collector who could only say, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" It was the tax collector who "went down to his house justified rather than the other" (Luke 18:12-14). The Church reads this parable at the Liturgy on the Sunday that opens the weeks of preparation for Lent. Fasting does not buy God’s love or earn salvation: it was the tax collector, not the man who fasted twice a week, who went home justified. It is a way of coming home to God, and of coming home to our neighbour.
In the Orthodox Church, the fast from food means setting aside certain foods, and sometimes eating less, for a time, as an offering to God. Across the Church’s fasts the foods traditionally set aside are meat, dairy, eggs and fish, and on many fast days wine and oil as well. The Church does not ask the same of every fast day. She takes a fast in steps, and on some days she relaxes it, so that fish, or wine and oil, may be allowed. Which applies on a given day depends on your church and on the day. A church calendar, or Askesis set to your church, gives the day, and your priest tells you what you personally keep.
The food itself is not the point. Christ names fasting together with giving to the poor and with prayer (Matthew 6:2-18), and the Church keeps the three together. Fasting is also training in self-control, which Paul pictures as an athlete’s training (1 Corinthians 9:25-27). Orthodox Christians call such effort ascesis, from a Greek word for training or exercise.
Christ himself fasted forty days in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-2). He spoke of fasting as something his disciples would do, and taught them how: "when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces" (Matthew 6:16), but "anoint your head and wash your face," so that the fast is seen not by people but "by your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you" (Matthew 6:17-18). The reward is the Father’s to give; no fast puts God in our debt. Asked why his disciples did not fast, he answered that the friends of the bridegroom do not mourn while he is with them, but that the days would come when the bridegroom would be taken away from them, "and then they will fast" (Matthew 9:15).
The Church of the apostles fasted too. At Antioch, "as they served the Lord and fasted," the Holy Spirit called Barnabas and Saul to their work (Acts 13:2).
The Didache, a short Christian handbook of the first or second century, tells believers to fast on "the fourth day and the Preparation", that is, on Wednesday and Friday (Didache 8). A canon attributed to Saint Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria and martyr, gives the reasons: "Wednesday is to be fasted, because then the Jews conspired to betray Jesus; Friday, because he then suffered for us." The same canon adds, "We keep the Lord’s Day as a day of joy, because then our Lord rose" (canon XV). So from the early centuries the Church has fasted on two days of the week and kept the Lord’s Day as a day of joy.
The ancient Apostolic Canons also guard the fast against contempt for God’s gifts. Canon 51 warns against giving up marriage, meat or wine out of disgust for them, "forgetting that God made all things very good". The canon condemns abstaining "as abhorring them", not abstaining "by way of religious restraint". The foods are good, and the fast is an offering, not a rejection of creation.
Saint John Chrysostom, preaching as a priest in Antioch, years before he became bishop of Constantinople, said to his people: "I have said these things, not that we may disparage fasting, but that we may honour fasting; for the honour of fasting consists not in abstinence from food, but in withdrawing from sinful practices; since he who limits his fasting only to an abstinence from meats, is one who especially disparages it. Dost thou fast? Give me proof of it by thy works!" If you see a poor man, he went on, take pity on him; if you see an enemy, be reconciled to him (Homilies on the Statues 3.11). The hands, he said, should fast "by being pure from rapine and avarice", and the ears by "refusing to receive evil speakings and calumnies" (3.11). "Let the mouth too fast from disgraceful speeches and railing" (3.12). And he asked what profit there is if we abstain "from birds and fishes; and yet bite and devour our brethren" (3.12).
The prophet Isaiah had already warned that fasting without justice is not the fast God chooses. There God says, "I have not chosen such a fast," and asks instead that his people set the bruised free (Isaiah 58:6) and "break thy bread to the hungry" (Isaiah 58:7).
The Church puts these teachings at the door of Lent. On the Sunday before Great Lent begins, the readings at the Liturgy include Christ’s words on forgiveness and on fasting (Matthew 6:14-21) and Paul’s counsel to those who eat and those who do not: "Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him" (Romans 14:3, within Romans 13:11 to 14:4). A fast that makes a person proud, harsh, or quick to judge what is on someone else’s plate has gone wrong.
The Orthodox Church keeps four fasting seasons. Every one of them ends in a feast.
Most Wednesdays and Fridays through the year are also fast days, remembering the plot against Christ and his Crucifixion. The Church lifts the usual fasts for some weeks, such as the week that begins on Pascha and the days from the Nativity up to, but not including, the eve of Theophany, and in general for a week after Pentecost, though how far that week extends varies by church. A few single days, such as the eve of Theophany, are fast days as well. Orthodox Christians also prepare for Holy Communion with a fast, as their priest directs.
These are dates in the church calendar. Churches that keep the Julian calendar (the old calendar) keep the same fixed dates thirteen days later on the civil calendar (until 2100), so their Nativity Fast runs from 28 November to 6 January. The exact dates for each year are on the Orthodox fasting calendar for 2026 to 2030, with pages for Great Lent 2027, the Nativity Fast 2026 and the Wednesday and Friday fast.
Zeal is a gift, and it is easy to take on more than we can carry. If you are new to the Church, or newly eager, begin gently.
For a particular person, the priest can adapt the Church’s general discipline. Children and young people who are still growing, the elderly, pregnant and nursing mothers, the sick, and people whose work or health makes the full fast unwise may keep a lighter fast, a different one, or none, as they decide with their priest, and the young with their parents too. This is not a loophole but pastoral care.
Then begin again, without despair. Get up and continue.
A broken fast is not a ruined one. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, read at the Liturgy in the weeks before Great Lent, the son says, "I will get up and go to my father" (Luke 15:18), and while he was still far off, "his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him" (Luke 15:20). This is not leave to set the fast aside. It is the Father’s welcome to everyone who turns back to him.
On Pascha night, at Matins, the Church reads Saint John Chrysostom’s Catechetical Address, and it calls everyone to the same feast: "Rejoice to-day, both ye who have fasted and ye who have disregarded the fast." And: "Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon hath shone forth from the grave." That welcome is for those who turn back and come to the feast, not leave to set the fast aside.
A fast is a help on the way to the feast, not a test that can be failed for good. If a broken fast troubles you, speak with your priest. He, not this page, will say what, if anything, to do.
Orthodoxy is lived as a community: in the Church, gathered around the chalice, and not as a private project. The fast leads to the Eucharist and to the feast, and it is best learned where the Church prays. If you can, visit a parish near you, be present at the Divine Liturgy, and ask to speak with the priest. This page and the Askesis app can tell you the Church’s general discipline for the day. They cannot give you the life of the Church, which is found in the parish, with the people who pray there and the priest who knows you.
Your priest’s guidance for you personally always comes first. This page states the general discipline of the Church.
Askesis is an Orthodox calendar app for iPhone and iPad that shows today's fast in plain food words for your church's calendar.
No. Fasting is a spiritual practice, kept together with prayer and almsgiving, whose purpose is repentance and love of God and neighbour. Any effect on health is beside the point.
Gently, and with your priest. A newcomer is usually advised to begin with what the priest suggests and to grow into the fast year by year, not to take on all of it at once.
Begin again, without despair. The Church’s welcome in the parable of the Prodigal Son and in the Pascha-night address is for those who turn back, not leave to set the fast aside, and your priest will help you if it troubles you.
Most Wednesdays and Fridays of the year are fast days, remembering the plot against Christ and his Crucifixion. The Church lifts the usual fasts in a few weeks of the year, and your church’s calendar, or Askesis set to your church, gives each day.
Not necessarily in the same way. Their priest can adapt the Church’s general discipline for age, pregnancy, illness and other needs, and decides with them how they fast, if at all.
Saint John Chrysostom teaches that a fast is proved by works: by mercy to the poor and reconciliation with enemies, not by food alone.
If you can, yes. Visit a parish near you, be present at the Divine Liturgy and ask to speak with the priest, because the fast is kept with the Church.