Ellinikes Meres Nistias
Ellinikes Meres Nistias (Greek Fasting Days)
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| ~ For Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Christians, fasting is an important spiritual discipline, found in both the Old Testament and the New, and is tied to the principle in Orthodox theology of the synergy between the body (Greek: soma) and the soul (pnevma). ~ That is to say, Orthodox Christians do not see a dichotomy between the body and the soul but rather consider them as a united whole, and they believe that what happens to one affects the other (this is known as the psychosomatic union between the body and the soul). |
 Meteora Monasteries, Greece
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~ Green Monday in Greece and Cyprus is the movable feast day known elsewhere in the Greek Orthodox Church as Clean Monday, the first day of Lent - approximately 7 weeks before Easter. ~ Traditionally families go to fields to barbecue fasting foods such as vegetables and seafood (not meat), later flying kites and playing other games. |
| ~ There are four fasting seasons, which include: ~ Great Lent (40 days) and Holy Week (7 days), ~ Nativity Fast (40 days), ~ Apostles' Fast (variable length), and ~ Dormition Fast (2 weeks) ~ Wednesdays and Fridays are also fast days throughout the year (with the exception of fast-free periods). ~ Fasting during these times includes abstention from: ~ Animal products, all dairy products, and with the exception of some specific days fish, oil (interpreted variously as abstention from olive oil only, or as abstention from all cooking oils in general), and red wine (which is often interpreted as including all wine or alcoholic beverages) sexuality (where fasting is pre-communion). |
 Nativity  The Dormition of Mary |
 Pentecost |
~ 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. ~ The Afterfeast of Pentecost-the period from Pentecost Sunday until the Sunday of All Saints, inclusive. ~ The period from the Nativity of the Lord until (but not including) the eve of the ~ Theophany (Epiphany). ~ The day of Theophany. |
Theophany/Baptism in the Jordan
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 The Resurrection of Christ
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