When do you break your Lenten fast?

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Rather self-explanatory. 🙂 I usually break mine right after Easter Vigil but I won’t be able to attend this year due to work, so I’m dithering between 12:00 AM on Easter Sunday and after Mass on Easter morning. What do you like to do?
 
It used to be before Vatican 11 that we broke the fast at noon on Holy Saturday. Not sure why that was.
 
SJG1759 said:
Rather self-explanatory. 🙂 I usually break mine right after Easter Vigil but I won’t be able to attend this year due to work, so I’m dithering between 12:00 AM on Easter Sunday and after Mass on Easter morning. What do you like to do?
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You mean the Easter Fast. After the Easter Vigil (or Matins which is later).
  1. The Easter fast is sacred on the first two days of the Triduum, in which, according to ancient tradition, the Church fasts “because the Spouse has been taken away.” [43] Good Friday is a day of fasting and abstinence; it is also recommended that Holy Saturday be so observed, so that the Church, with uplifted and welcoming heart, be ready to celebrate the joys of the Sunday of the Resurrection. [44]
Circular Letter Concerning the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts (Prot. 0) January 16, 1988
catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/DocumentContents/Index/14/SubIndex/0/DocumentIndex/319
 
Depends on the year. I used to break it on Holy Thursday as is Catholic tradition. Then more recently I didn’t break it for nearly 2 years after the Ash Wednesday I started it on. Now I’ll technically aim for the Easter Vigil this year.
 
Padres1969 said:
Depends on the year. I used to break it on Holy Thursday as is Catholic tradition. Then more recently I didn’t break it for nearly 2 years after the Ash Wednesday I started it on. Now I’ll technically aim for the Easter Vigil this year.
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It is Catholic tradition to break the fast on Holy Thursday? I’ve never heard that.

In the Eastern tradition, the Great Fast (Lent) is over, but the Holy Week fast has begun. They run seamlessly together, so I’m not really sure why we consider them to be separate. At any rate, we break the fast after the Blessing of the Paschal Foods, after the Divine Liturgy. My parish does it in the morning, other parishes have a midnight Divine Liturgy and bless the foods after that.
 
I typically break mine after the Easter Vigil. One could technically make a case that one could break his or her fast on the evening of Holy Thursday since Lent has ended, but it seems rather inappropriate to break the fast when Our Lord is about to make His journey to the cross. I believe it is encouraged to maintain a spirit of penance through Holy Saturday to fully celebrate the joys of Easter Sunday.
 
Rbaker said:
If we want to be technical, Lent ends after Holy Thursday
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And it’s followed by the triduum, an even more solemn season.

Of course the idea of giving something up for Lent is a private devotion so you can make any decision you want about when it should start or stop.
 
utah_rose said:
It used to be before Vatican 11 that we broke the fast at noon on Holy Saturday. Not sure why that was.
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Until 1955 the Easter Vigil was on Saturday morning so it made perfect sense to break the fast after the Vigil was over.
 
As long as I attend the Easter Vigil, I break the fast after it. I’ve done that for over 40 years. As a student, my preferred lenten fast was from alcohol, so my post-Vigil activity would always involve beer.

If I don’t attend the Easter Vigil (which I can’t remember NOT doing in over 40 years), I would not break my fast until after attending Mass on Easter morning. The same applied to my children – they could hunt for Easter eggs but no eating them until we came home from Mass.
 
utah_rose said:
It used to be before Vatican 11 that we broke the fast at noon on Holy Saturday. Not sure why that was.
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Pope Pius XII restored, in Maxima Redemptionis (November 19, 1955), the older time for the observance of the vigil of Easter in the Latin Church. Below is a commentary from 1910 about the changes that were made since earlier centuries.

Catholic Encyclopedia:
The night of the vigil of Easter has undergone a strange displacement. During the first six or seven centuries, ceremonies were in progress throughout the entire night, so that the Alleluia coincided with the day and moment of the Resurrection. In the eighth century these same ceremonies were held on Saturday afternoon and, by a singular anachronism, were later on conducted on Saturday morning, thus the time for carrying out the solemnity was advanced almost a whole day. Thanks to this change, special services were now assigned to Holy Saturday whereas, beforehand, it had had none until the late hour of the vigil.

Leclercq, H. (1910). Holy Saturday. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. newadvent.org/cathen/07424a.htm
 
Saturday, anytime. Lent is over on Holy Thursday, but I just don’t see breaking it that day or Good Friday.

Saturday is very Easter-ish at my house. I am up singing all the Easter songs. My wife and son get to do some shopping, The Church is being decked out with lilies. For some, we can’t wait until the Easter Vigil. When the lights come up (at the Alleluia, for us) everything has to already be in place.

On the other hand, some “sacrifices” had to wait until later Sunday after all obligations are met and the work is done.
 
The concept of Lent ending when the Triduum starts is a new one, which began in 1970 with the new missal. Prior to that the Triduum was always considered part of Lent, and Lenten devotions would continue accordingly.
 
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