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The Daniel Fast, in Christianity, is a partial fast, in which meat, dairy, alcohol, and other rich foods are avoided in favor of vegetables and water in order to be more sensitive to God. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The fast is based on the lifelong kosher diet of the Jewish prophet Daniel in the biblical Book of Daniel and the three-week mourning fast ...
Fasting traditionally presaged a great spiritual struggle. [26] Elijah and Moses in the Old Testament fasted 40 days and nights, and thus Jesus doing the same invites comparison to these events. In Judaism, "the practice of fasting connected the body and its physical needs with less tangible values, such as self-denial and repentance."
Rules relating to fasting pertain to the quantity of food allowed on days of fasting, while those regulating abstinence refer to the quality or type of food. The Christian tradition of fasts and abstinence developed from Old Testament practices, and were an integral part of the early church community.
And such external discipline ought to be urged at all times, not only on a few and set days. So Christ commands, Luke 21:34: Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting; also Matt. 17:21: This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. Paul also says, 1 Cor. 9:27: I keep under my body and bring it into subjection.
Fast-free days. During certain festal times the rules of fasting are done away with entirely, and everyone in the church is encouraged to feast with due moderation, even on Wednesday and Friday. Fast-free days are as follows: Bright Week – the period from Pascha (Easter Sunday) through Thomas Sunday (the Sunday after Pascha), inclusive.
Weeping is the accompaniment of fasting (Judges 20:26; Nehemiah 1:4; Joel 2:12). This fast in the fifth month, the month of Ab, had been established in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. The temple was burnt on the ninth or tenth of the month (see 2 Kings 25:8, 9; Jeremiah 52:12, 13).
The Friday fast is a Christian practice of variously (depending on the denomination) abstaining from meat, dairy products and alcohol, on Fridays, or holding a fast on Fridays, [1] [2] that is found most frequently in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and Methodist traditions.
[15] In the New Testament, Jesus went into the desert to fast and pray for 40 days and 40 nights; it was during this time that Satan tried to tempt him (cf. Matthew 4:1–3). [37] The 40-day and night fasts of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus prepared them for their work.