Fasting 006: Nativity Fast in the Typikon

The Nativity Fast begins on November 15. For the Churches on the Julian calendar - Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Georgia, Poland, Sinai, Ukraine, and Japan - November 15 coincides with November 28 on the Gregorian calendar.

The fasting period before the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord is a rather ancient practice. However, until the year 1166, this period consisted of only one week, an echo of which is still present in the fact that the rules for the last week of the Nativity Fast are different from those of the preceding weeks. The Armenian Church which has not been in communion with Constantinople since the fifth century, continues to observe only one week of fasting as well as to celebrate Nativity and Theophany as one feast on January 6 NC / December 24 OC, as was the universal practice prior to the fifth century.

The Adoration of the Magi by Edward Burne-Jones (1904)

Instructions for keeping this fast are outlined in the Typikon, chapter 48, in a note for November 14:

For tomorrow, we begin the fast for the Nativity of Christ, the holy forty days. In this forty-day fast, in every week, we must keep three days fasting from oil and wine - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

There are also plentiful celebrations for “great saints” which allow for oil and wine if the date falls on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, and for fish if it falls on a Tuesday or Thursday - “for the love of the saint, because of his feast.” Fish is served on the feast of the temple (also known as the parish feast) as well as on the Feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple, regardless of what day of the week it happens to be.

Chapter 33 of the Typikon offers the following clarification:

For in the fast of the Apostles and of Christ’s Nativity, on Tuesday and Thursday, we do not eat fish but oil and wine only. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we eat neither oil nor wine, but fast until the ninth hour [3 pm], and eat “dry foods” [xerophagy] on those days. On Saturdays and Sundays though, we eat fish.

Let us discuss some practical applications of these instructions.