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Fasting

The Dormition Fast

Saturday 1 August – Friday 14 August 2026

The Dormition Fast is the Church's summer fast in honour of the Mother of God: the first fourteen days of August, preparing for the feast of her Dormition — her "falling asleep" — on 15 August. It is the shortest of the four seasonal fasts and, among many Orthodox people, one of the most loved, kept with particular tenderness because it belongs to the Theotokos.

At a glance

  • •1 to 14 August, before the Dormition of the Theotokos (15 August)
  • •Kept strictly, as in Great Lent: no meat, dairy or eggs, fish, wine or oil
  • •Wine and oil at weekends
  • •Fish, wine and oil on the Transfiguration (6 August)
  • •Paraklesis to the Mother of God sung on most evenings

Though brief, it is kept strictly — the rule is that of Great Lent. Meat, dairy and eggs, fish, wine and oil are all set aside; wine and oil are permitted at weekends. In the middle of the fast comes the great feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord (6 August), when fish, wine and oil are permitted and the fast brightens without breaking. The fast then deepens again towards its end, and on the fifteenth the Church celebrates the Dormition with full festivity.

What marks this fast most is not the table but the services. On the evenings of the fast, Greek practice appoints the Paraklesis — the supplicatory canon to the Mother of God, sung in her honour and for her intercession — alternating between its great and small forms. Two weeks of quiet evening prayer to the Theotokos, with the Transfiguration shining in the middle, give August a character unlike any other stretch of the year.

If you are new to fasting, the Dormition Fast is a kind gift: long enough to be a real discipline, short enough not to overwhelm. Keep what you can of the rule, and above all go to the services if your parish serves them — the fast makes far more sense sung than read about.

Fasting is a guide, not a law: how you keep it is worked out personally, with your parish priest. Illness, age, pregnancy and circumstance all soften the rule, and it is never a measure for judging yourself or others.