Nativity Fast in 2022: when does it start and what can you eat by day?

When does the Nativity Fast begin in 2022?

The dates for fasting before Christmas are fixed.

We begin to observe strict fasting always on the same day - November 28th. Abstinence from fast food ends on the Christian holiday of Christmas Eve, which precedes Christmas. Thus, this year the winter fast begins in November 2022, and it will end in January 2023.

The eve of Christian Lent, when a modest meal is eaten, is called a fast. It falls on one day preceding Philip's fast. Christians fast for 40 days. Dietary rules at this time differ for monks, temple servants and ordinary parishioners.

For the laity, fasting before the New Year is not so strict. To follow it, you need to know on what days you can eat certain foods. The week before Christmas is considered the strictest.

Recipes for Lenten dishes during the Nativity Fast

Millet porridge with prunes

• Millet – 1 tbsp.
• Prunes ½ tbsp.
• Water – 2 ½ tbsp.

How to cook millet porridge with prunes:

Pour two glasses of cold water over the millet. Put on fire. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer until the water has evaporated. Rinse the prunes, add ½ cup of water, cook until softened. Drain the broth, mix prunes with millet. If the porridge seems too dry, you can add a little broth and stir.

Hercules porridge with walnuts

• Oatmeal – 1 ½ tbsp.
• Walnuts - 1/3 tbsp.
• Water ½ l
• Salt to taste

Recipe for oatmeal porridge with walnuts:

Sort oatmeal if necessary. Boil water, pour rolled oats into it. Add salt, peeled walnuts. Cook over low heat, stirring continuously.

Vegetable soup

• Cabbage – 500 g
• Leek – 1 piece
• Water – 1 ½ l
• Onions – 1 pc.
• Carrots – 1 pc.
• Fresh tomatoes – 2 pcs.
• Celery stalks - 1 head
• Greens, garlic - to taste

Lenten vegetable soup recipe:

Shred the cabbage, cut the tomatoes, celery, and pepper into small cubes. To boil water. Place cabbage and herbs (preferably basil) into boiling water.

Wait until it boils again and add pepper, celery and tomatoes. Thinly slice the leek and add to the boiling soup. Turn down the heat.

Fry the onion and finely grated carrots in vegetable oil and add to the soup. Cook the soup until done. Squeeze the garlic and herbs into the soup, leave to stand covered for a few minutes. Pour into plates.

Lean milk

• Nuts (any, but preferably walnuts or almonds) – 200 g
• Boiled water – 3 cups
• Sugar to taste

How to make lean milk from nuts:

Grind the nuts, gradually adding water. Then strain the mixture through cheesecloth and squeeze dry. Add sugar to taste.

Jellied fish

• Fresh fish – 2 kg
• Water – 2 l
• Onions – 2 pcs.
• Carrots – 2 pcs.
• Black peppercorns
• Seasonings, herbs to taste

Lenten fish recipe:

Clean the fish, cut off the tail, head, and fins. Cut the carcasses into pieces. Place the heads and tails in a saucepan, add a couple of black peppercorns, bay leaves, coarsely chopped carrots, and onion heads. Pour water, add salt, and simmer for 30 minutes, skimming off the foam.

Then remove the heads and tails from the broth and dip the pieces of fish into it. Cook over low heat until tender (about 15 minutes). Remove the fish with a slotted spoon and place in the pan. Place pieces of boiled carrots and lemon slices between the pieces of fish. Strain the broth and pour it over the fish. Let cool and put in the refrigerator. Serve with horseradish.

Bean soup

Lenten bean soup is a tasty and satisfying first hot dish.

• White beans - 200 g
• Leek – 1 pc.
• Celery stalks – 2 pcs.
• Carrots – 2 pcs.
• Onions – 2 pcs.
• Olive oil – 4 tbsp.
• Garlic – 1 clove
• Bay leaf – 2-3 pcs.
• Parsley – 1 bunch
• Salt

How to make Lenten White Bean Soup:

Soak the beans in cold water for 3-4 hours. Rinse and refill with cold water in a ratio of 1:2. Put on fire. When it boils, remove from heat and drain the water.

Place a bay leaf, 1 whole onion, 1 carrot, 1 stalk of celery. Cook for about an hour. Then remove the vegetables. Finely chop the remaining onion, fry in olive oil, add grated carrots, herbs, and celery. Fry for 2-3 minutes.

Place the roast in a saucepan. Add beans, pour in vegetable broth, leeks, cut into rings. Cook until done. Remove from heat and garnish with chopped herbs in plates.

Sprat rolls with mushrooms

Your whole family, even those who don’t fast, will love delicious and unusual Lenten fish rolls with mushrooms.

• Sprat – 1 kg
• Marinated mushrooms – ½ l

Recipe for fish rolls with mushrooms:

Salt the sprat, remove bones, and rinse. Roll into rolls and secure with a match and clove buds. Place in an enamel pan, pour over the mushroom marinade. Let soak for 1-2 days. Place on a plate and place mushrooms next to it. Serve, garnished with greens.

Mushroom caviar

Well, what would a post be without vegetables, or rather without vegetable mushroom caviar. Delicious mushroom caviar can be eaten as an addition to cereals or pasta, or you can simply spread it on bread and make a sandwich.

• Mushrooms – 400 g fresh or 200 g salted or 50 g dried
• Onions – 1 pc.
• Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp.
• Table vinegar (or lemon juice), salt - to taste
• Green onions

How to cook mushroom caviar:

Finely chop the mushrooms (if the mushrooms are fresh, first boil them in salted water, and soak the dried ones and boil them). Chop the onion, lightly fry until golden brown, mix with mushrooms. Season with vinegar, sprinkle with finely chopped green onions.

Lenten cookies

You can diversify the Lenten table with delicious cookies, an excellent addition to tea.

• Flour - 3 cups
• Starch - 1 cup
• Vegetable oil – 150 ml
• Salt - on the tip of a knife
• Baking powder (or slaked soda) - 1 tsp.
• Sugar - 1 tbsp.
• Water – 150 ml
• Vanillin or vanilla sugar - to taste
• For decoration: raisins, candied fruits or marmalade

Lenten cookie recipe:

Rinse the raisins and pour boiling water over them. When it cools down, drain the water. Mix baking powder with flour and starch. Pour flour into a bowl, add vegetable oil, stir.

Dilute salt, sugar and vanillin in water, add to flour. Knead well. Roll out the dough into a layer 0.5-1 cm thick and cut into small strips.

Cut strips and decorate with raisins. Place on a baking sheet (do not grease with oil). Bake in the oven at 180-200º for 15 minutes.

Spicy caviar

For those who like it spicy, spicy caviar with garlic and walnuts will make your Lenten table bright and unusual.

• Garlic – 1 head
• Peeled walnuts – 1/3 tbsp.
• Wheat bread – 1 slice
• Vegetable oil 3-4 tbsp.
• Lemon juice – 1 tbsp.

Recipe for lean caviar with walnuts:

Crush the garlic, add nuts and crush again. Soak wheat bread in a small amount of water for a couple of minutes. Then squeeze and mix with nuts and garlic.

Beat with a wooden spoon, gradually adding butter until you get a thick puree without lumps. Pour in lemon juice and stir thoroughly. Place in a caviar bowl or plate, smooth, garnish with herbs.

Beetroot salad

A tasty and healthy beet salad with pickles will become a frequent guest on your table during the Nativity Fast 2016.

• Beetroot -2 pcs.
• Salted cucumbers – 2 pcs.
• Onions – 1 pc.
• Salt, sugar, a pinch of cumin
• Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp.

A simple beet salad recipe:

Roast the beets in the oven with their skins on. When baked and cooled, peel and grate on a coarse grater. Cut the cucumbers into cubes. Peel the onion and cut into rings. Stir the vegetables, add salt, season with cumin, and sprinkle with lemon juice. Garnish with onion rings.

The essence and history of the Filippov fast. Why keep him

Sometimes you can hear another name - New Year's fast. This is due to the fact that it falls on everyone’s favorite winter holidays. Abstaining from fast food (in other words, fasting) helps to cleanse yourself spiritually and physically. Thanks to this, spiritual unity with the Lord God occurs. A fasting person clears his mind of everything unnecessary, he is sincere in his faith and feels completely ready to celebrate a Merry Christmas.

The frailty of the body and the presence of evil thoughts are the source of sin. You can get rid of it partially or completely only by sacrificing something. When a person begins to fast, he may experience some discomfort at first. But by the end he feels cleansed and satisfied.

The Nativity fast appeared in 430-460. Believers believed that abstinence was a kind of worship of the Lord and gratitude for the fruits collected in the summer-autumn period. Initially, the duration of the fast was different: it lasted 7 days before Christmas.

The meaning of the post:

Any multi-day fast, including Christmas, prepares us for the deepest, fullest experience of the upcoming holiday. The goal of a fasting Christian is to ensure that the meeting with Christ on a holiday becomes for him a truly important event, prepared both by intense prayer and the feat of abstinence. The human body and soul mutually influence each other. Therefore, by limiting ourselves physically (for example, in food), we also help the soul: we stop scattering around and concentrate more on spiritual life: prayer, reflection on Christ, on fulfilling His commandments.

Nativity, Greece;
XV century In addition, by weakening the body (and mental strength too) with food that is less nutritious than usual, we learn to subordinate our desires to our mind and will, and our mind and will to God.

The Gospel tells that before going out to preach in Galilee and Judea, which was destined to last three and a half years, Christ withdrew from people and strictly fasted for forty days and nights (Matthew 4 :1-11; Luke 4 :1-13; Mark 1:12 , 13). Moses also fasted for the same amount of time before Him when he ascended Mount Sinai, where God gave him the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24:18 ); and the prophet Elijah, who walked for forty days without food or drink to Mount Horeb, where a meeting with God awaited him (1 Kings 19 :5-8). It is characteristic that it was at the end of the forty-day fast that the devil tried to tempt the Savior, apparently believing that fasting had physically exhausted Jesus and made him less resilient. But spiritually the Lord, on the contrary, became stronger and overcame all temptations. Thus, He showed that fasting is the best weapon against the tempter (as all the holy fathers speak with one voice), and He prepared for His service in the world.

In memory of these events, both the Nativity Fast, which prepares us to experience the event of the Nativity of Christ, and Great Lent, which precedes the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ, last forty days and are called in the church charter the Lent.

“The Fast of the Nativity Pentecost,” adds Saint Simeon of Thessalonica, “depicts the fast of Moses, who, having fasted for forty days and forty nights, received the inscription of the words of God on stone tablets. And we, fasting for forty days, contemplate and accept the living Word from the Virgin, not inscribed on stones, but incarnate and born, and we partake of His Divine flesh.”

Nutrition during the Nativity Fast: what you can and cannot eat

Believers are recommended to fast from November 28, 2022 to January 6, 2023. During this period, you should refrain from consuming meat products, chicken eggs, milk and anything made from it. The basis of any meal should be cooked cereals: buckwheat, millet, oatmeal.

Daily nutrition calendar for the laity in 2022 and 2023 during the Nativity Fast

What Orthodox believers eat during this period:

The most stringent restrictions are imposed on the days on which dry eating is accepted.

• Dry eating
  means that you can only eat food that is strictly of plant origin. Food should not be subjected to any heat treatment. The products are not boiled or stewed; they are consumed fresh, dry or soaked. It is allowed to eat nuts, cereals, honey, olives, and figs.
• Hot food includes
  : mushrooms, all types of cereals, soups, stewed vegetables. It is served either with or without butter, depending on the restrictions. On fish days you can treat yourself not only to different types of fish, but also to other seafood.
• On alcohol
  : wine in small quantities is allowed on weekends. It is allowed to drink a glass of wine on Orthodox holidays that fall during Lent: the Entry into the Temple of the Mother of God on December 4 and December 19 on St. Nicholas Day.

Is it strictly necessary to fast on New Year's Day?

Church ministers do not deny the right of people to celebrate the New Year, although the Orthodox continue to fast at this time. In December 2022, people will observe the Nativity Fast, which began on November 28.

It won’t hurt to wait until it’s over and abstain from fast food until Christmas. But at the same time, you should be respectful of those around you who do not fast on these holidays. New Year has always been considered a family holiday; there is no point in quarreling and sorting things out on this day. Even with different views on Christian foundations.

Meals by day

Compared to Great or Dormition Lent, Nativity Lent is not so strict. Dry eating - that is, eating foods that have not undergone heat treatment is necessary only on Wednesdays and Fridays for several weeks. The rest of the time, meals with hot food in vegetable oil are allowed, on some days - fish, on weekends - wine. The strictest fast begins a few days before Christmas, culminating in Christmas Eve, during which many believers do not eat food until the first star rises.

The Church has determined the circumstances that allow a person to weaken the Nativity fast (here we are talking, of course, not about spiritual food, but about bodily food). These include illness, hard physical labor, old age, travel, and military duties. Pregnant women and young children are also exempt from restrictions related to the consumption of animal foods.

How to prepare for fasting

Any dietary restrictions can be harmful to health if you do not prepare for them in advance. What will help prepare the body for 40 days of abstinence from various foods:

1. Preparations should begin in advance. Animal plant food is not immediately excluded from the diet. Otherwise, the body will be subject to stress. First, believers give up lamb, pork and beef. When the body adapts, you can exclude chicken meat, milk and eggs from the diet.
2. The day before, the intestines are cleansed. This is done in order to launch a complex mechanism of intracellular cleansing in it. In addition, people with empty intestines are less likely to feel hungry. If you neglect this rule, it will be more difficult to suppress your appetite. This applies to the first days of entering the post.
3. In the days before the fast, it is not recommended to eat fatty foods.
4. It is allowed to enter the post with minor restrictions, which can be eliminated over time.
5. The reduced caloric content of food is compensated by larger portions than usual.
6. At first, you can increase the number of meals per day.
7. Between main meals, you can snack on vegetables and fruits.
8. Instead of sugary drinks, it is recommended to drink purified water.

Leaving the post

To avoid getting an upset stomach, you need to stop abstinence wisely. Filippov's fast ends on the night before Christmas. This is a big holiday for all Orthodox Christians, when the table is bursting with delicacies and delicacies. Limiting oneself for a long time, a person often breaks down and ends up in the hospital. Therefore, on Christmas Eve, when non-frugal dishes are served for dinner, try a little of each of them. Wash everything down with a glass of wine, which helps digestion.

At Christmas itself, when meat and fatty dishes, sweet pies and cream pies are put on the table, it is also important to be careful. It is better to eat in small portions, but often. Priests recommend special prayers that will help you end abstinence without harming your health.

The Christmas (Filippovsky) fast involves not only food restrictions. As John Chrysostom said: “True abstinence is also bridling one’s tongue, taming lust, getting rid of evil, anger and bad thoughts, stopping lies and slander.” Therefore, try to follow these rules, and not only during fasting, but throughout your life.

Do's and Don'ts

Fasting should not be considered only as a time of abstinence from consuming certain foods. At this time, you need to work on your state of mind. What to avoid:

• from drinking alcohol (rarely and on certain days you can drink a small amount of wine);
• from wasted time (too much rest harms both body and soul);
• from entertainment activities (long stays on the Internet are also not recommended);
• from watching television programs and films (especially scenes of violence and abusive relationships);
• from trips that do not involve visiting holy places.

The performance of marital duties is not prohibited, but must be performed only with the consent of both partners. During Filippov's fast, you need to try to be more tolerant towards others, all grievances should be forgotten and left in the past. It is forbidden to swear obscenely and quarrel with neighbors.

On holy days, handicrafts are not prohibited. You should not sew or knit only when reading prayers or visiting temples. You should not go hunting or fishing - killing living creatures, especially these days, is strictly prohibited.

How to celebrate the New Year?

New Year 2022 will be celebrated on Friday - a day of strict fasting. On this day, it is recommended to eat raw food, refrain from drinking alcohol and having wild fun. But if a person does not feel the strength to overcome temptation, you can limit yourself to giving up animal products, eating some fish, vegetable salad, and hot dishes.

If not all family members are believers, under no circumstances should you offend them by refusing to participate in the New Year’s feast. To boast of observing fasting is an even greater sin than easing it.

There is nothing more important to God than maintaining peace in the family. Deliberately refusing food offered and condemning loved ones for not fasting means cultivating pride and exaltation in oneself. If you are invited to the New Year's table, you need to find a compromise and, as far as possible, celebrate the New Year modestly, observing moderation in everything. If there are no Lenten dishes on the table, you can eat any other food, making the sign of the cross. But at the same time, you should not abuse the indulgence, eat everything at once, have fun all night, or get drunk.

Traditions and rules

According to ancient traditions, babies can be baptized these days.

The deceased are remembered only on certain days: from November 28 to January 5. If a funeral dinner falls on one of these days, it should consist only of Lenten dishes. Fast food is also prohibited for such cases. The spiritual director can relax restrictions upon request.

Weddings are not held on these days, and a modest wedding with a signature at the registry office is not prohibited. There is no need to set hospitable tables, and cheerful festivities are not encouraged. If these rules are neglected, the newlyweds will live their whole lives in deprivation and misfortune.

How does the Nativity Fast work for Catholics?

In general, the Catholic fast before Christmas is very similar to the Orthodox one. People also abstain from eating fast food, go to church, pray and ask the Almighty for atonement for sins. The strictest days are the 4 Sundays before Christmas, called Advent. These days, Catholics actively attend church, repent of their sins and pray.

A minor difference between the Catholic Nativity Fast is the date. The first day of the abstinence period is November 15, and the last is December 24, before Catholic Christmas.

Prayers for the Nativity Fast

It is important to approach fasting in a calm, relaxed state of mind. To overcome all the difficulties of the conspiracy, you need to read the following prayer on the first day of the Nativity Fast:

“You are our merciful Lord God, accept the sincere prayer words from Your servant (name), give me strength to be on the path of enlightenment. I ask you to forgive my sins, give me help and guidance to withstand all earthly trials. Amen.".

Believers need to begin and end each day of Lent with prayer. You can read these words:

“Our Most High and Merciful God, I ask you for forgiveness of the sins that I have committed on this sinful earth. Grant the cleansing of my soul from unnecessary defilement. Send me, Lord, a restful sleep and fill me with strength in the morning so that I can serve you again. Get rid of bad thoughts and unnecessary fuss. Amen.".

Signs

What weather signs did people believe in in Rus':

It rains outside the window on the day the fast begins - there will be a good harvest next fall. Frosty weather outside has been established for all 40 days - spring will be warm and early. There is a snowstorm on the street before Christmas Eve - a rich harvest of honey will be collected in the apiaries. Warm weather before Merry Christmas - the cold will remain for a long time in the spring.

All housework during this period should be performed only during daylight hours. Children born at this time will be successful and happy.

Questions and answers

Filippov's conspiracy

This is the eve of Pentecost - forty days of abstinence, spiritual and physical. Before the Filippov Fast began, on November 27 one could still enjoy something tasty and savory. In order to withstand long weeks of various restrictions and not break strict rules, our ancestors came up with a custom: to eat to satiety. Just like on Maslenaya, people even today on the eve of the Nativity Fast organize festivities, go to visit and have meals with their families.

In many regions of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, boys and girls organize so-called vechernitsy for the Filippovsky ritual. Musicians are often hired to have fun. There is also a tradition of treating each other with various delicacies. These can be pancakes, nuts, gingerbread, as well as alcoholic drinks - wine or vodka.

After this, on November 28, the Filippov fast begins, during which strict rules must be followed: do not eat animal products, do not drink alcohol, do not maintain intimate relationships in marriage. It is even forbidden to sing and dance; all this time people must devote to prayers and communication with God.