Eastern Catholics: How many days do you fast a year?

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Tis_Bearself

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I am considering my own fasting practices, and recently read that in the early Church, before the 200s, Christians would fast about half the year. Over time, Western Catholics fasted less and less for various reasons until today when we have only 2 mandatory “fast days” and they’re not really “fasting” as we do get 3 meals, as opposed to something like no eating until after 6 pm, or bread and water only.

I would like to ask, about how many fast days on average do Eastern Catholics observe in a year? For purposes of this question, “fasting” is defined as a significantly restricted food intake, not just abstaining from meat. Thank you for any replies.
 
When I was Eastern Catholic my ‘normal’ fasting was

Every Wednesday and Friday throughout the year [ except when it was a ‘fast free week’.
The Great Fast
The Apostles Fast
The Dormition Fast
Philip’s Fast
And any other time when we were asked to Fast in preparation for a Feast
 
You should see how much the Coptic Church fasts. They are pretty amazing and a tremendously persecuted church. They have some great YouTube presentations. Some really funny ones too done by their youth and some of their priests but they have a different Coptic name they use for their priests. I forget what it is.
 
Salibi said:
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Divine3:
but they have a different Coptic name they use for their priests. I forget what it is
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I think it’s “Abba”. We Maronites use it too.
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Or maybe Abouna?
 
my coptic church hymns on cyc - YouTube. Here is a link to their youth channel…very impressive. Their chant at mass is different than Byzantine …but it has its own beauty after you listen to things in English. Really like the other eastern churches chants too.
Praying one day the Coptic and orthodox churches become one with the Latin…as Christ asked all to be one at the last supper…or expressed in gospel of John.
 
I added them up once and I think it was about half the year…a good balance I think. FWIW this week is fast free 🙂

ETA: A lot of it can also depend on your calendar (Revised Julian tends to have fewer days since the Apostle’s Fast is shortened or even eliminated some years…this year I think they have 5 days) as well as when Pascha falls…early Pascha means a longer Apostle’s Fast.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
So did this add up to about half the year? That’s a lot of fasting.
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I made the sum and it’s around 173 days a year:
  • 40 Christmas + 40 Easter + 14 Dormition + 6 Apostles and you are left with 36 weeks in which you fast 2 days a week these are another 72 days.
    This is for why, for health reasons, unless you are a hermit, fasting usually only means restriction from meat, fish and other animal products.
 
This is a good point. Please see my definition of “Fasting”. If you are eating three meals but just leaving out meat, fish, dairy, eggs etc that’s not what I mean.

I mean some type of extreme fasting like
-no food all day, or
-bread and water, or
-bread and juice, or
-a tiny breakfast and nothing else till night etc.
 
In Eastern terms the word used is Fasting - there are restrictions.

On ‘fast free’ weeks there are no restrictions.

From Mary888’s reply <<This is for why, for health reasons, unless you are a hermit, fasting usually only means restriction from meat, fish and other animal products.>>
 
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Yes, I understand Eastern terms are different from my definition of “fasting”. My definition is also different from what the term means for required “fast days” in Western Catholicism.

So for how many days do Eastern Catholics on average do the type of “extreme fast” I describe?
 
eagerbeaver said:
In Eastern terms the word used is Fasting - there are restrictions.

On ‘fast free’ weeks there are no restrictions.

From Mary888’s reply <<This is for why, for health reasons, unless you are a hermit, fasting usually only means restriction from meat, fish and other animal products.>>
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Okay so that is not fasting the way the Roman Church defines it.
For example, for us not eating meat would be abstaining.
Fasting on the other hand is not abstaining from a specific item but a reduction in quantity of food eaten in a day.
 
eagerbeaver said:
In Eastern terms the word used is Fasting - there are restrictions.
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In the Archeparchies of Pittsburgh and Parma, “abstinence” is used to describe fasting requirements:

The law of abstinence forbids the use of meat or meat byproducts, permitting the use of eggs and dairy products. Abstinence is to be observed on all Wednesdays and Fridays during the Great Fast. Strict Abstinencee (no use of meat, eggs, or dairy on the first day of the Great Fast and on Great and Holy Friday.
 
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I think you must also bear in mind - that in the East we Fast under the direction of our Priest/Spiritual Father. There is no age at which we start Fasting nor one at which we stop - it is a lifelong discipline

At the age of 75, one day I had to confess to the EC Priest that I had broken the Fast. The response from him was one of horror " You are not permitted to Fast as you are over age" I told him rather forcefully that I would continue to Fast as long as it was safe for me so to do.

I’m still Fasting though my present priest has modified/mitigated it for me
 
Also, fish is meat in the east. (seabugs, such as crustaceans, and shellfish are not).
 
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