The midnight sun over Advent Bay, Norway, 1905. Things seem dark? Maybe time to refocus a bit.
Yes, the Christmas Seasons has officially arrived with the start, today, of Advent!*
Now, most folks will of course know what Advent is, but for those who do not, and I know that there are plenty of people who do not, including not only secular people but many devout Christian Protestants, Advent is the liturgical season which preceded Christmas. During this time, in Latin influenced Christendom, which by this point would mean all of Western Europe, the Western Hemisphere, and much of Sub Sahara Africa (and many other places as well), this seasons is characterized as being a time of joy in anticipation of Christmas itself, or in religious terms, the feast commemorating the birth of the Savior, that being Christ's Mass. . .IE., Christmas.**
So, time for a fast!
Eh?
Yup. Some Christians fast this time of year. Indeed, they are obligated to in some instances.
Now this is something that's blisteringly foreign to most people in the Western World. The whole idea is a shocker. This is the season of endless parties. . . that holiday gathering of friends, relatives and family, the office party or parties, the gatherings in dorm rooms, lecture halls and the like. Even people who only vaguely try to adhere to a Christian life will be gathering for Christmas parties and partaking in mass quantities of holiday cookies, cake, and, yes. . . booze.
Mr. Fezziwig dances with his workers at his company party in the famous scene from A Christmas Carol, in which Dickens portrays the jovial and generous Fezzwig as the model of a Christian employer. . and not without good reason.
But not everyone does that.
And perhaps that's a good thing for those of us in the Western World to recall.
In the East, and by that I mean in Eastern Christendom geographically, culturally and Canonically, this is a time to fast.
What?
Yes.
The Nativity Fast is here!
Now, to explain this I'm going to lean heavily on something I just linked in right above. The item above is linked in (taken?, swiped?, borrowed?) from an excellent blog called Fear Not Little Flock. Its' the blog of the wife of a married Byzantine Catholic Priest.*** The chart sets out the season in the various spheres of the Apostolic Church's realms. Indeed it does a very nice of job of doing so.
For those not too familiar with it, the Catholic Church has several Rites, only one of which is the Latin Rite. The Latin Rite is that rite of the Church that most people call the Roman Catholic Church and which is by far the biggest rite. It certainly isn't the only one, but for historical reasons it became the largest and has spread around the globe. That rite never displaced the other ones however, and as noted above there are, in addition, the Ambrosian, Mozarabic, Byzantine, and Maronite Rites. The Ambrosian Rite is very close to the Latin Rite and actually exists principally in a certain region of Italy. The Mozarabic Rite is one that was once dominant on the Iberian Peninsula and today is principally found around Toledo Spain. The Maronite Rite is major rite that is centered in Lebanon. The Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church is that Catholic Rite which reflects that part of the Apostolic tradition in the East which remained with or returned to full Communion with Peter's seat. In form of its liturgy, it's very close to the Greek Orthodox Church.
Indeed, that isn't all of the rites, but given as its the major ones (and a couple of more minor ones), it's a good list. In addiction to those listed in this charter there are also Bragan, Dominican, Carmelite and Carthusian, which are very narrowly used and all of which are associated, like the Ambrosian and Mozarabic, with the Latin Rite.
The Maronite Rite is a West Syriac Rite, which also includes the Syriac and the Malankarese Rites. The related East Syriac includes the Chaldean and Syro Malabarese Rites. The Byzantine family of Rites includes not only the Byzantine Rite but the Armenian Rite. The Byzantine Rite itself shares its liturgical forms with the Eastern Orthodox so its not surprising that there are some Catholic Rites that share their liturgical forms with the Oriental Orthodox, those being the Coptic and Ethiopian/Abyssinian Rites.
Which brings us to this, as its part of the story we're about to relate, even though this wasn't intended to be a post on church history.. Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches are also Apostolic Churches, along with the Catholic Church. I don't know the fasting disciplines of the Oriental Orthodox, other than that I'm sure they have them, but the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox share the same fasting disciplines, as essentially they are close in form.****Regarded such things as fasting, the Eastern Orthodox and the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church are very close, reflecting a common Eastern origin.
Okay, so what can we learn from this? Well quite a lot. And its significant.
For one thing, Advent in the Eastern Rite begins on November 14 or 15, not in late November or early December as it does in the Latin Rite. And it begins even earlier in the Ambrosian Rite which is very closely related to the Latin Rite. That probably suggest that it began earlier in the Latin Rite at one time as well, particularly as the Mozarabic Rite also commences Advent earlier. As the chart shows, the Maronites, also start it earlier.
Where the Eastern Rite really stands out, however, is that it has a Nativity Fast tradition.
As the chart notes, the Advent fasting obligation is not as strict as the Lenten one for the Eastern Rite. That fast, from the Latin Rite prospective, is very strict indeed. In the Latin Rite, since the 1960s, the fasting discipline has become very minor and is confined to certain days Lent with the number of days of Abstinence, i.e,. days in which Roman Catholics abstain from meat, being likewise so confined in the United States (this isn't the case, however, everywhere). The Eastern Rite, however, during Lent steps in various items which the Faithful must abstain from, with the ultimate list being quite expansive.
So what is the Nativity Fast in the Eastern Rite? Well the Church in the Eparchy of Phoenix states the following regarding it:
Fasting
Abstain from meat and dairy products on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays. Dairy is allowed on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but still no meat. (See our list of Philip's Fast Dinner Ideas.)
Fast from certain foods, such as soda, alcoholic beverages or candy.
With each meal, eat only an amount that is sufficient for nutritional needs, without feeling full.
Fast from select forms of entertainment (television, movies, radio, internet, novels, etc.).
That right there exceeds what a lot of Latin Rite Catholics do during Lent.
Note, however, I don't know if the Nativity Fast is obligatory for Eastern Rite Catholics. I do know that, just from listening to Catholic Stuff You Should Know, which as a Byzantine Catholic Priest as one of its hosts, that the Byzantine Catholic Church had let its fasting discipline weaken a bit over the years but it is now reviving it. Brief net research suggest that the Nativity Fast may be optional, but if you are researching the topic, don't take advice from me, as I don't know the answers here.
The Antiochean Orthodox Church, part of the Eastern Orthodox, takes this view:
Guidelines for the Nativity Fast
The Nativity Fast
(November 15 through December 24)
The Nativity Fast is one of the four Canonical Fasting Seasons in the Church year. This is a joyous fast in anticipation of the Nativity of Christ. That is the reason it is less strict than other fasting periods. The fast is divided into two periods. The 1st period is November 15th through December 19th when the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, dairy, fish, wine, and oil) is observed. There is dispensation given for wine and oil on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Similarly, fish, wine, and oil are permitted on Saturdays and Sundays. The 2nd period is December 20th through 24th when the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, dairy, fish, wine, and oil) is observed. There is dispensation given for wine and oil only on Saturday and Sunday during this period. Here are the guidelines:
| Meat | Dairy | Fish | Wine | Oil |
| beef, chicken, pork, turkey, elk, veal, lamb, deer, rabbit, buffalo, and so forth | milk, eggs, cheese, butter, yogurt, cream, and so forth | fish with a backbone (not including shrimp, octopus, shellfish, squid, or other seafood. | (some include all types of alcohol in this category) | (some include all types of oil in this category) |
| Abstain. | Abstain. | Permitted only on Saturdays and Sundays before December 20. (some permit fish Tuesdays and Thursdays also) | Permitted only on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, & Sundays before December 20. | Permitted only on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, & Sundays before December 20. |
Abstinence includes refraining from the food and drink mentioned above, as well as from smoking. The Eucharistic Fast means abstaining from at least the previous midnight for communing at a morning Liturgy.
The Purpose of Fasting
The purpose of fasting is to focus on the things that are above, the Kingdom of God. It is a means of putting on virtue in reality, here and now. Through it we are freed from dependence on worldly things. We fast faithfully and in secret, not judging others, and not holding ourselves up as an example.
- Fasting in itself is not a means of pleasing God. Fasting is not a punishment for our sins. Nor is fasting a means of suffering and pain to be undertaken as some kind of atonement. Christ already redeemed us on His Cross. Salvation is a gift from God that is not bought by our hunger or thirst.
- We fast to be delivered from carnal passions so that God’s gift of Salvation may bear fruit in us.
- We fast and turn our eyes toward God in His Holy Church. Fasting and prayer go together.
- Fasting is not irrelevant. Fasting is not obsolete, and it is not something for someone else. Fasting is from God, for us, right here and right now.
- Most of all, we should not devour each other. We ask God to “set a watch and keep the door of our lips.”
Do Not Fast
- between December 25 and January 5 (even on Wednesdays and Fridays);
- if you are pregnant or nursing a newborn;
- during serious illness;
- without prayer;
- without alms-giving;
- according to your own will without guidance from your spiritual father.
Okay, whether its obligatory or not, its certainly the case that for most Americans the concept of abstaining from something during the Christmas Seasons is simply inconceivable, although ironically thousands of Americans will making pretenses towards abstention following the Christmas Season, which gets me to my next point.
Christmas beer. . .something that most Americans are much more familiar with than Nativity Fasts. While some might suppose that this is a recent phenomenon that came about due to the micro beer boom, in fact special ales for Christmas are a very long European tradition and go back into the Middle Ages. Special Ale was in fact a very typical feature of Christmas feasts and usually significant landowners either brewed a good Christmas ale or imported it, even in the Middle Ages, from Germany which was already noted for its superior brewing.
The anemic part of the secular trendy discovering, or pretending to discover those things is that they're always anemic as at best their tied to a vague sense that there ought to be a purpose to what they're doing and at worst they're tied to the concept that "if I personally do this, I'll live forever". No wonder so many people who do this, with such little purpose tied to it, fall of the wagon while the Apostolic Faithful do it year after year without being noticed.
Well, what about an Advent Fast. Extreme?
Well, not really.
This is a season of joy, to be sure, and I'm not going to make the argument that there is no pleasure without pain (although that's likely quite true). What fasting does, among other things, is to emphasize a point, and a point that needs to be made.
It focuses.
There is a point to Christmas and Advent emphasizes that point. The point isn't running around with eggnog spiked with Makers Mark and having a hangover the following day. The point is likely the antithesis of that. And the fasting discipline of the Eastern churches really emphasizes that.
It seems foreign to us, as it is. But that's because the point of modern Western existence is, well pointless. People run around after money or self fulfillment or any number of other vague catchphrases that have no deeper metaphysical or philosophical meaning at all. To try to fill that, they try to fill it with self directed meaning that's just as meaningless. It's no wonder that all sorts of vague movements meaning nothing, from self awareness efforts, to confused efforts to redefine gender and base your identity on that (why on earth would anyone want their identify defined by their sex drive?), to grossly misunderstood attempts to adopt Oriental religions that have no disciplines are popular in our own day. People want the greater meaning. . . as long as it doesn't have meaning. . . or perhaps if it doesn't seem too hard.
Well, fasting is hard, particularly if it has a purpose, and that purpose isn't focused exclusively on you.
Which is one of the reasons that the Western World here ought to take a look at the East.
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*FWIW, the word "Advent" comes from the Latin, "to arrive". It celebrates the arrival of Christ.
**Christ's Mass is known to have been celebrated extremely early on in Church history, I believe as early as the 1st Century. Moreover, contrary what later day basement Internet dwellers and Naive Reddit Rubes may have some believe, it's not only not placed on top of a preexisting pagan holiday, it's known to have actually been celebrated in December early on and, moreover, prior to the Roman establishment of the most commonly claimed pagan candidate, Sol Invictus. That's right, pagan Romans, probably simply coincidentally, placed their holiday on top of what was already a Christian feast day.
***Oh I know you are already saying "whoa there bucko. . . I know a thing or two about you Catholics and your Priest don't marry". Well not so fast buckwheat. That's only true in the Latin Rite, and not fully true even in it.
Eastern Rite priests can and usually are married if they're parish priests. And in the Latin Rite there are married priests who have come in typically from Protestant churches where the priest was formerly a cleric of a Protestant church that has a similar and close understanding of theological matters to the Catholic Church. It isn't a matter of theology that keeps Latin Rite priest from being generally married, but rather a law of the Latin Rite was originally designed to prevent there from being an aristocratic inherited priesthood.
****And this definitely isn't intended to be a history of schism, so we'll only briefly touch on that here.
As noted, all of the Churches discusses here are Apostolic Churches. That is, they were directly founded by the Apostles. They were, and they all acknowledge that they were, at one time one single church but historical events separated them and a schism developed. That is, they have disagreements and the Eastern Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox are not in communion with the Catholic Church. I don't know if the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox are in communion with each other. There is currently a major dispute going on with the Eastern Patriarch in Turkey, who is generally regarded as the most important Patriarch in the Eastern Orthodox community, and the Russian Orthodox Church, which has caused the Russian Orthodox to take itself out of communion with the Greek Orthodox Church and hence a schism has recently developed there.
Schism or not, all of these churches are highly related and are largely in agreement on most things. They all adhere to the doctrine of Apostolic Succession and they all view each other as having fully valid holy orders and sacraments. While it might surprise an American who walked into the door of one of the various Orthodox Churches to learn it, they are much closer to each other than they are to any of the Protestant churches.
