Fasting

[尼古拉前执事]

...must we give up our Thanksgiving Dinner?

{This is from a Question and Answer session in my church's monthly bulletin, answered by Fr. George Lardas.}

A: No, we need not. During the Nativity Fast (Advent), which begins 40 days before Christmas (28 November), we abstain from meat, eggs, and dairy products. On Wednesdays and Fridays we also abstain from fish, wine (spirits), and oil. Two weeks before our Christmas, after Ss. Spyridon and Herman (25 December, American Christmas), the fast becomes stricter, and fish is not permitted, and wine and oil are permitted only on Saturdays and Sundays.

It is more important to obey the rules of the Church than to follow local custom, but we may adapt our celebration accordingly. Although Thanksgiving falls on the first day of the Nativity Fast (Advent), it is also preceded by a regular fast day, Wednesday. So the latest non-fasting day before Christmas is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, 26 November. If we wish to have the Thanksgiving dinner on the day itself, we can adapt the menu: Instead of stuffed turkey we can have stuffed salmon or other large fish. Instead of milk and butter in the potatoes and yams, we can use soymilk and margarine. Many recipies can be made for fasting.

Since Thanksgiving is always followed by a fast day (Friday) it is never right to eat the turkey leftovers the day after Thanksgiving. Sometimes the fast begins on the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving, so there is no non-fasting day afterward. In that case all the meat must be eaten on Thanksgiving, or discarded, or given away, or frozen until Christmas.

[Liudmilla]

HOW MANY OF US WILL SIMPLY DELAY THE FAST A DAY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE HOLIDAY ANYWAY?

[尼古拉前执事]

Glory to Jesus Christ!

First off, welcome to the forum Liudmilla! Nice to have you here. You may wish to check to make sure your caps lock button isn't accidentally on next time you post, as on the Internet, it is seen as yelling to type in all caps. But no harm meant I am sure.

Personally I would rather move a less important secular celebration that one instilled by our Faith. We will probably have our Thanksgiving the Sunday before the secular date in order to have Monday and Tuesday to eat leftovers. Then since we have Thursday off from work and school, we will go to Church and give thanks to the Lord for all he has given us in the last year.

Again, welcome aboard and my God Bless you and yours!

[尼古拉前执事]

Nativity Fast (Advent)
During the whole month of December we abstain from meat, eggs, and dairy products. Until Ss. Spyridon & Herman's day (Secular Christmas) we may have fish, wine and oil except on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. After that day the fast becomes strict as in Great Lent, and abstain from fish as well. We may then have wine and oil on Saturdays and Sundays only.

[Lounger]

Maybe I should have started a new thread with this, and perhaps the first person to reply should do so, but does anyone have any fasting recipes to share since the Nativity fast starts on November 15th/28th, in just over 24 hours from now?

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 I recommend putting lots of vegetables in the crock pot on the high setting at night with 1 can of water to 1 can Swanson's 100% fat-free vegetable broth and lots of seasoning salt and other spices like thyme and basil. Before you go to work in the morning, set it on low, and add more seasonings if needed anf then you will have a wonderful stew when you get home. I serve it over rice by putting rice in the bottom of your dining bowls then scooping the stew on top of the rice.

  I personally like to add potatoes, carrots, green and lima beans, peas, carrots, onions, cabbage or spinach, tomatoes, corn, chesnuts, broccolli and various squashes.

[尼古拉前执事]

Many Fasting recipes can be found at http://aggreen.net/food/recipes.html God Bless you all and a Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating it today!

[Justin Kissel]

A recent article at The Onion Dome mentions the subject of "label reading" during Lent. This is when people look at the ingredients listed on food packages at the store to make sure there's no ingredients that are to be fasted from. I wasn't offended by The Onion Dome article, but at the same time, I do think it's a serious issue that needs to be discussed. I don't think it should be discussed in a "here's what one must do" type of way, but I think it'd perhaps be healthy to discuss what we all do, and why we do it.

As for our family, at first we were pretty stict about the label reading stuff (though we did falter a few times of course). After thinking it over, however, and reading some things, we decided to take a much less strict approach to things. Basically, now, we buy for the most part foods that we know are ok for Lenten eating, and in the rare case where we are unsure, we scan the back quickly, and if it doesn't have anything like milk, meat, etc. as one of the main ingredients, then we eat it. Here's one quote that I've been thinking about recently:

Fr. Hilarion came by to ask if he could print my talk in Orthodox Life, and then Fr. David, a young ryassophore monk, came by for a long discussion on "fanaticism" and on making Orthodoxy accessible to ordinary Americans. We discussed the word "Christmas," "label-readers" who warn you of the ingredients of cookies* (I told him it was all right to read labels for yourself, but not for others)...

• That is, they read labels to see whether foods have oil or dairy products in them, and thus determine whether they are stricly "lenten." - Seraphim Rose; Found in: Not of This World, pp. 800-801