The Weekly Fast
In effect nowMost Wednesdays and Fridays, all year
From the first centuries, Christians have kept two fast days in every ordinary week: Wednesday, remembering the day Judas agreed to betray the Lord, and Friday, remembering the Crucifixion. This weekly rhythm is the backbone of Orthodox fasting — a quiet, repeated reminder, written into the shape of the week itself, that the Cross stands at the centre of the Christian life. Monasteries often add Monday as well, in honour of the bodiless powers, the angels; parishes generally do not.
At a glance
- •Every Wednesday and Friday, except in fast-free weeks
- •Full rule: no meat, dairy or eggs, fish, wine or oil
- •Feasts falling on these days often allow wine and oil, sometimes fish — check the day's entry
- •Also kept strictly: Eve of Theophany (5 Jan), Beheading of the Forerunner (29 Aug), Exaltation of the Cross (14 Sep)
- •Suspended entirely during fast-free weeks
In principle the Wednesday and Friday fast follows the full rule: no meat, dairy or eggs, fish, wine or oil. In practice the calendar frequently softens it — when a saint of higher rank or a feast falls on a Wednesday or Friday, wine and oil, and sometimes fish, are permitted, and the day's entry on this site says so plainly. During fast-free weeks the weekly fast is suspended altogether, and between Pascha and Pentecost it is kept more lightly in many places.
Three other days of the year are kept with the same strictness even though they stand outside the fasting seasons: the Eve of Theophany (5 January), when the Church prepares for the blessing of the waters; the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (29 August), a feast kept in fasting out of sorrow for the Forerunner's death; and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross (14 September), when the Church venerates the Cross and shares in its self-denial. Each is marked as a fast day on the calendar despite being a feast.
For a newcomer the weekly fast is the natural place to begin. It is short, it returns every few days, and it teaches the essential habit: pausing twice a week to remember the Passion with the body as well as the mind. Keep it as you are able, ask your priest how your parish observes it, and let consistency matter more than severity.
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.