Fasting and Holy Days

Fasting is abstinence from food to attain forgiveness of sins and reward. It also serves to weaken the force of the body so that the body may obey the soul. It is strictly observed by all baptized members of the church. All faithful above the age of seven are obliged to observe the fasting commanded by the church. Special allowance is made for the sick and women during maternity. During Lent only one meal is allowed in the afternoon at 3:00 P.M. As far as lay persons are concerned, the hours of fasting have practically been reduced to end at midday, especially for those whose task is hard labour. During the fasting periods, weddings are not allowed. When fasting, all meat (red meat, chicken, fish) egg, butter, milk and cheese are prohibited. But fasting is not only to abstain from eating meat and products of meat, neither is it only abstinence until noon or 3:00 p.m. When we fast, we should also refrain from all wrongdoing and the bath of evil, i.e. vanity, violence, jealousy, hatred, and all the works of Satan.

Fasting is accompanied by prayer, although we ought to pray every day, even during feast days. Evidently, Christ Himself, his disciples, and other holy men, conducted their prayers while fasting. Jesus said, “This kind of enemy goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” This principle is observed strictly by the church.

The official fasting periods in a year are as follows:

1. All Wednesday and Fridays, except the fifty days after Easter. We observe these days because on Wednesday the Jews together held counsel to put Christ to death, and Friday he was crucified for our salvation. Besides that, the apostles found it necessary to observe fasting for two days in the week for the remission of whatever sins may have been committed during the week. So, they decreed that Wednesday and Friday must be observed identically to the Great Lent observance.
2. Tsome Neviyat or the Fast of the Prophets, from Nov 24- Jan 6. It is called the Fast of the Prophets because the prophecy of the coming of Christ was fulfilled.
3. Gahad of Christmas and Epiphany (The Vigils). It is observed on the eves of Christmas and Epiphany.
4. Nenawe (the Ninevah fast for three days). The Ninevah fast is observed to commemorate the fasting of the people of Ninevah and the mission of Jonah the prophet. It is a fast of repentance, and the repentance of the people of Ninevah was not done only for themselves, but as a pattern for all Christians.
5. Abye Tsome (the great Lent fast of 55 days). The first week is called Tsome Herqal (for a Byzantine emperor in the seventh century A.D.), the next 40 is in remembrance of the forty days Christ fasted and the final week is Holy Week.
6. Tsome Hawariat (Fast of the Apostles) After receiving the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost observed this fast before they started preaching the Gospel.
7. Tsome Filseta (Fast of the Assumption) The angels took the body of the Virgin Mary to Paradise, accompanied by John the Apostle and laid it under the Tree of Life by the angles. The other apostles did not see this so they fasted and prayed for 15 days so they could see, after which the angels of God brought the body of The Virgin back to the apostle.

There are major and minor holy days observed by the Church.

Major Holy Days

Minor Holy Days