What does Easter Fast mean?

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ShrodingersCat

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Hi all,

I read this article on a neighbouring archdiocese’s website (but I believe the article originally came from my archdiocese): [Lenten penance explained | The Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra & Goulburn]

The article states:
Lent lasts from Ash Wednesday (February 10) to the Mass of the Lord’s Supper (March 24) exclusive. On Good Friday and, if possible, also on Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil, the Easter fast is observed.
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In this context, what does “Easter Fast” mean? I don’t know if it means that you should do the same thing on holy Saturday as you do on good Friday, or if it means that, even though lent is technically over, you should still observe whatever lenten penance you have chosen until the easter vigil.

Thanks!
 
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Maybe somebody from Australia can answer this. In USA I am not aware of any requirement that we fast on Holy Saturday. Good Friday is a fast day.

Also, I have never heard the fast called the “Easter fast”. Easter is a feast day and wouldn’t normally be linked with fasting. The messages here in USA would say, “Good Friday is a fast day” or “Fasting is required on Good Friday.”
 
Thanks for the reply.

I also usually only see Good Friday and Ash Wednesday linked to fasting. It’s just this one article (evidently from a past Easter, since the dates are wrong for this year). If I’m supposed to fast tomorrow I want to make sure to do it.

I only just found out that Australia reinstated ember days. I had no idea what they were. But apparently we are supposed to do penance or fasting or something. Everything I read was vague about what is required.
 
Why don’t you confer with your priest for further clarity? I doubt anyone here can help more than your priest.
 
Good idea. I won’t be in church again though before Sunday. It’s late good Friday night in Aus. And not something I’d try and bother a priest about by calling him. Worst case scenario is I do the fast when I don’t need to. And I’m pretty sure I don’t need to. But the wording is ambiguous.
 
To my knowledge, Sundays are feast days and are exempt from fasting. I imagine Easter Sunday is more so.
 
Yes, agreed. The article mentions fasting on saturday until the vigil. Thats the confusing bit.
 
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I’ve never heard a priest say that. I suspect, just based on some of the questions they get on here, that people are already so confused about fast and abstinence rules that they don’t want to confuse them further by suggesting an extra optional day.
 
I’ve literally never heard of this until now.

As for continuing the fast, I have anemia issues, blood sugar issues and a lot of other stress in life, so I’m fasting for Friday and that’s it. Not because I don’t love Jesus but because fasting for 2 days in a row at this point would be likely to do a number on me so I’d be spending half of Easter lying down.

Fasting to me is good for penance and “offering up” but I fail to see how it prepares me to “share more fully and celebrate more readily” anything. Unless the idea is to share in suffering along with Jesus, which is more of an “offering up” thing.
 
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Do you mean the fast that entails not eating anything until Easter Sunday? If so, then I think I’ve finally got what the OP means. I’m actually trying to do it myself.
 
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Thank you!

I must say I’m not a fan of this “if possible” wording. It either is obligatory (in which case you are excused if health issues prevent you from fasting anyway) or it is optional. To me, “if possible” means I have to do it. Only until Sundown I suppose. I assume I don’t have to go to the Easter vigil to be excused from the fast at sundown.
 
Salibi said:
Do you mean the fast that entails not eating anything until Easter Sunday?
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Latin Catholics don’t fast by going without food. Our fast is two small meals and one regular sized meal, and no meat on abstinence days. (Ember Days if I remember right were supposed to be “half abstinence” days where you could have meat but only at one meal.)

By “continuing the fast” it sounds like they want Saturday to be a fast day as well up to Easter Vigil time. Easter vigil begins about 8 pm. I presume that means you’d eat two little meals on Saturday and then start feasting after 8 pm.
 
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Yes, I know about Latin fasts. What I’m doing is an optional penance- I’m trying to have nothing for two days! I’ve been fasting from all food and drink since yesterday midnight and its nearly 6 pm here, so so far so good. Wish me luck, Bear!
 
I see no reason why you can’t have a large meal and 1 little meal on Saturday until the vigil time. Which is 6.15 for me (sunset is at 5.30). Is it from when the vigil starts or ends? I assume from when it starts, since the period of celebration can begin.

I ate literally no food on Good Friday so that’s what I intend to do.
 
Good luck with that! I have gone without eating all day sometimes for optional penance. I pretty much have to lie down and sleep though, and it’s best if I eat when evening rolls around and don’t let it go overnight. Going without food has negative effects on me that have nothing to do with hunger and everything to do with metabolic issues.
 
ShrodingersCat said:
I see no reason why you can’t have a large meal and 1 little meal on Saturday until the vigil time. Which is 6.15 for me (sunset is at 5.30)
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I’m glad you “see no reason”. I prefer to look out for my own health. And if you’re not a person’s doctor, you shouldn’t be telling that person how to eat.

The problem with these fasting threads is that somebody always thinks they can tell somebody else how to fast because what works for them must obviously work for everyone else. It doesn’t. I’m pretty familiar with fasting as I actually do it year round and have done up to 3 or 4 days a week at times, sometimes more severely than the church rules (and yes, on some days I have eaten nothing all day too), and I can tell you that if I fast two days this weekend it will not be a good thing and I will likely be spending Easter in bed. This is partly due to the combined work and church services/ Mass schedule I’ve already been observing all week; this is a very busy week and involves a lot of driving, spending hours in church, and other life responsibilities.

And this fast on Saturday is optional. It is not obliged for the church, it is some bishops’ idea of a nice extra thing to do. No thanks. Just because you’ve decided it’s “obligatory”, don’t go imposing your ideas on others.

I’ll actually be very glad when I hit age 59 and then my fasts will be own business and I can just tell people like you, “I’m exempt.”
 
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Likely the OP’s and every one else’s priest is not in the office today. This is Superbowl, the Triduum has priests with barely time to sleep.

It is an old tradition to fast on Holy Saturday and have a big feast after the Vigil. My guess is that your conference of Bishops has some guidelines on their website.
 
I’ve actually never discussed my fasting with a priest or a Bishop. I just do it. The one time it occurred to me to ask my priest just in case I was doing something wrong I was told, “Do whatever you want, it’s the intention that counts. Just fast- from anything that gives you pleasure.”
 
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TheLittleLady said:
It is an old tradition to fast on Holy Saturday and have a big feast after the Vigil.
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I’m baffled by having never heard about this even once. Except maybe in the old medieval times when you fasted every day in Lent, not just the Fridays. Then again, nobody in my family ever went to the Easter Vigil. I attended my first Easter Vigil as an adult, with my husband. We always went to Mass on Easter morning, usually as close to noon as possible because my parents didn’t like early Masses.
 
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