from St Andrew’s Service Book

A Table of Fast and Abstinence

Strict Fast Days
Ash Wednesday Good Friday

Wednesdays and Fridays are days of abstinence throughout the year.

Fast Periods During the Year:

• Advent
• The Forty Days of Lent
• The Ember Days at the four seasons, being the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the First Sunday in Lent, the Feast of Pentecost, September 14, and December 13.

The Wednesdays and Fridays that fall during a fast period are considered days of fast and abstinence.

Note: There is no fast or abstinence of any kind from Christmas Day to the eve of Epiphany, or from Easter to the following Sunday.

Abstinence means to avoid eating certain kinds of food; e.g., flesh meat, dairy products.

Fasting means to reduce the amount of food eaten, generally to one and one-half meals per day.