Great Lent 2023: Food Calendar

Great Lent 2023 has begun. The food calendar depends on the choice of the believer, but takes into account the main restrictions and prohibitions.

Great Lent 2023 has begun. The food calendar depends on the choice of the believer, but takes into account the main restrictions and prohibitions.

Orthodox Christians began Great Lent 2023 on February 23. It will last for almost 7 weeks and will end on April 11, the eve of Easter Sunday. Food restriction is one of the important conditions of fasting. Temporary abstinence in the choice and amount of food is designed to harden a person's will, to lead him through physical limitations to the victory of the spirit over the flesh.

Dietary restrictions for believers include a ban on meat, dairy, and eggs. Fish and oil are allowed only on special days. But the degrees of severity of fasting for monks and ordinary laymen may differ. Modern believers choose suitable fasting options for themselves. After all, abstinence from certain foods is not a diet, but a way to improve spiritually. No matter what decision the fasting person makes, the Great Lent 2015 food calendar takes into account the main restrictions and prohibitions.

Food during Great Lent: church traditions

According to established church traditions, the strictest restrictions for those who fast are provided for in the first and last weeks before Easter. On Monday of the first week (the week of fasting) and on Good Friday (the last Friday of fasting) you cannot eat at all.

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, you can eat cold food once a day. It can be bread, boiled vegetables, fruits, water, compote. It is forbidden to eat hot food on these days. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can eat hot dishes without oil once a day. It is allowed to cook vegetables, cereals, mushrooms.

On Saturday and Sunday, you can eat hot fasting food with the addition of vegetable oil twice a day. The exception is Holy Week Saturday, when strict fasting is observed. You can eat raw food without butter.

On the feast of the Annunciation (April 7, 2023 ) and on Palm Sunday (April 5, 2023 ), you can add fish to the menu. On these days, as well as on Lazarus Saturday (April 4, 2023 ), it is allowed to drink a glass of red wine. In addition, you can eat fish roe on Lazarus Saturday.

In general, nutrition during the fasting period has a regularity. Dry food alternates with hot dishes, including soups. Vegetables and fruits available at this time make it possible to fill the need for vitamins. A fasting person gets carbohydrates from bread and cereals, proteins from nuts, mushrooms, seeds. Fats are found in vegetable oil, as well as in nuts and seeds.

An adult and healthy person is quite capable of withstanding such restrictions. But doctors draw attention to the fact that people who are engaged in physical labor should not be deprived of hot food. The same applies to those who work on the street. In addition, cold food without oil can cause digestive disorders (primarily, constipation). Especially if you are following a strict fast for the first time. To prevent constipation, nutritionists recommend eating steamed prunes and dried apricots, drinking warm water sweetened with honey.

Children, pregnant and lactating women, people with stomach diseases and other serious diseases cannot fast. If the child decides to fast, it is better to convince him to consciously give up his favorite treats.

How to fast for the laity

During fasting, lay people should follow two main rules: exclude animal products and eat moderately. After all, if a believer eats only fasting food, but does not limit himself in its quantity, such a diet can be considered a violation of the fast.

The Great Lent 2015 food calendar offers many fasting dishes. These are various salads, broths, vegetable stews. During Lent, you can prepare soups with groats or vermicelli, cabbage soup, lean borscht. Suitable lean dishes are stewed or baked potatoes, vegetable salads (for example, vinaigrette, beets with nuts). Also include fresh greens in the menu.

There are many lean dishes with mushrooms, including pickled and dried ones.

During fasting, try to prepare vegetable cutlets, cabbage rolls, thin pancakes, zrazy. During this period, replace the usual sweets with baked apples or pumpkin with honey, jelly, morsels, and dried fruits.

When compiling an individual food calendar for Great Lent 2023 , remember that the restrictions consist in maintaining and controlling your desires and needs. There is no need to starve yourself. In order not to lose health, your food during this period should be healthy and tasty, but simple and without excesses.