Meals during Lent are peculiarly distributed over the days of the week. However, there are also small exceptions: it is possible to eat foods with vegetable oil on weekdays, as well as on the holidays of the Annunciation and Palm Sunday, you can eat fish and seafood, on Lazarev Saturday - caviar. Also, on some days, you should abstain from food and water altogether until midnight.
Weeks according to the Church charter are weeks. So, Great Lent lasts 7 weeks: 6 weeks and the last - Passion Week - the most severe! The first week is also considered to be strict. According to the church charter, you can take food and water during the entire fast after 15:00 or shortly before that time, that is, after Vespers, 1-2 times a day, usually no more than 200-300 grams of a dish or a specific product. All people can fast, but the food needed for the normal life of a pensioner or a miner is different, so you can turn to a priest to ease the fast. A fasting person should feel peaceful and calm, do not torment his body with starvation, otherwise we harm ourselves, and this is a greater sin than non-fasting.
However, one can say which foods and on which days can be eaten, omitting the diet and the amount of foods that everyone will choose for themselves individually or on the advice of a priest.
So, for 2016, the period of Great Lent according to the Church charter is as follows:
- 1st week - from March 13 to March 19
- 2nd week - from March 20 to March 26
- 3rd week - from March 27 to April 2
- 4th week - from April 3 to April 9
- 5th week - from April 10 to April 16
- 6th week - from April 17 to April 23
- Holy Week - from April 24 to April 30
The beginning of Lent in 2016 should be considered March 14, but one should refrain from meat and dairy products already on Forgiveness Sunday on March 13.
Dry eating is understood as eating fresh vegetables and fruits that have not been cooked, as well as nuts, dried fruits, plant seeds, honey, from drinks - decoctions, juices, compotes.
Hot food without oil is, first of all, boiled vegetables, acceptable pasta, boiled cereals, if desired, fresh vegetables and fruits, pickles, pickled and fermented foods, from drinks you can use tea, cocoa, any cold drinks.
On days when it is allowed to eat hot food with butter, you can also cook baked dishes.
On the holidays of the Annunciation and Palm Sunday, you can eat fish, and on Lazarev Saturday - fish caviar.
