Holy Week is a special time for Orthodox Christians to remember the last days of Jesus' earthly life. Mentally living through all the events that filled the days after the Savior's entry into Jerusalem under the enthusiastic cries of the crowd, Christians in fasting and prayer thank Jesus for His sacrifice.
The Last Days of Jesus' Earthly Life
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ asked his beloved disciples to stay awake during His prayer to the Father. Remembering the Passion of Christ, Christians stay awake during Holy Week in fasting and prayer.
Food for the seventh week of Great Lent is limited to a minimum.
Special sacrifice to Christ - fasting and prayer before Easter
Every day of Holy Week is a remembrance of the events of that week, the last week before the Triumph of Life over Death
During the 7th week of Great Lent, there is a service in the churches, when the Orthodox world remembers not only deeds, but also prophecies from the Bible about the coming of the Mission to earth.
The menu for the seventh week of Great Lent is completely different from previous weeks.
About nutrition in other weeks of Great Lent:
Holy Monday
Returning from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives, the disciples noticed a withered fig tree, which Christ cursed because it did not bear fruit. (Matthew 21:18-22) How often the life of the Orthodox, given by the Lord, is spiritually empty.
The Parable of the Withered Fig Tree
In the parable of the vinedressers who killed the servants and the owner's son, the Savior spoke of the betrayal awaiting Him. (Matthew 21:33-41)
On Holy Monday, all Christians reflect on the approach of God's judgment.
During a strict fast on Monday, dry eating is observed:
- For breakfast, we suggest preparing sandwiches with vegetables, giving preference to avocados, as a more satisfying fruit.
- A vegetable salad of pumpkin, cabbage, carrots and onions with a few slices of rye bread will satisfy your hunger.
- Dry oatmeal drenched in fruit juice with the addition of dried fruits will serve as a good dinner.
Good Tuesday
In the parable of the 10 virgins (Matt. 25:1-13), Jesus left the commandment to the whole world to constantly be in anticipation of His return.
The Parable of the Ten Virgins
Every time before eating, you should ask God to guide you on the true path and not turn away from us when the time comes to appear before the throne.
The menu of the second day of Holy Week can be varied by preparing hot dishes:
- Breakfast: semolina porridge on the water with honey, tea and crackers.
- Lunch: vegetable soup with mushroom broth. Adding a small amount of pearl barley and well-boiled vegetables will give the soup thickness and nutrition.
- Dinner: Boiled potatoes, sauerkraut salad.
Passion Wednesday
In this turbulent time, more and more people come to God in order to find peace and rest under His protection. Newly converted Christians often ask the question why it is on Wednesday and Friday that the Orthodox fast throughout the year.
Passion Wednesday has a special meaning. This is a day of great worship of Jesus and low betrayal.
The former libertine, who received forgiveness for her sins, bought with all the accumulated money, and this is the salary of a Roman soldier for a year, myrrh - fragrant oil and washed the feet of Christ with it.
Washing the feet of Jesus by a sinner
The happy woman kissed the feet of Jesus, wept, wiped them with her tears and hair. (Matthew 26:6-17)
The great power of love and gratitude for salvation is shown in the act of worshiping the Savior.
On the same day, chosen in the number 12, a disciple named Judas agreed on betrayal for 30 pieces of silver, pointing the soldiers to Jesus with his kiss. The chosen one and the sinner, two people, two kisses - love and betrayal.
The great day of Holy Week helps the Orthodox in prayer and fasting, to ask Jesus to forgive all sins, to reveal the truth of the knowledge of the Kingdom of God.
Menu of the fourth day of Holy Week (dry eating):
- Breakfast: bread, tea.
- Lunch: turnip salad with pumpkin, grated on a coarse grater, with the addition of carrots, ice cream bell peppers with a piece of rye bread.
- Dinner: pita bread with vegetable spread of avocado and fresh cucumber, rolled up and cut into pieces.
The last Wednesday before Easter is the day of communion through repentance.
Good Thursday
Good Thursday is a great day in the history of the Church. It was on this day at the Last Supper that the Lord initiated the Eucharist (Matthew 26:17-35).
The Last Supper
The Great Sacrament lies in the grace bestowed by Jesus, each time coming to communion, one becomes a partaker of His body, cleansed by the power of His blood.
On the evening of this day, all Orthodox attend a service in the temple in order to listen to the Liturgy and partake of the blood of Jesus. On Maundy Thursday, the Gospels are read for a long time, but the faithful worshipers of the Savior stay awake, fulfilling His request.
Good Thursday is a holiday during fasting days.
The food on the fourth day of Holy Week is diversified by heat treatment of food, but in compliance with all the requirements of the Church.
Breakfast: Buckwheat porridge with fresh cabbage salad with carrots and onions, which should first be marinated in sugar, salt and lemon juice.
Lunch: Vegetable hodgepodge with mushrooms and sandwiches with fresh cucumbers.
Dinner: dumplings with potatoes.
Good Friday
A terrible day in the history of Christianity, when Jesus was captured, subjected to terrible tortures and crucified. It seems that at that moment all the demons of hell rejoiced, possessing warriors with indescribable cruelty. The Savior was beaten with leather whips, at the ends of which there were hooks that tore out pieces of meat from the body.
Terrible pictures of torture, a terrible crucifixion are not a reason to live this day in mourning. After all, the Lord is near, He is the Living, Resurrected Jesus and is now among us.
In memory of the Passion of Christ on that day, Christians do not take food until the shroud is taken out of the temple.
Crucifixion of Jesus Christ
The crucified Jesus died surprisingly quickly, usually people were tormented on the cross for three days. God the Father did not allow the executioners to enjoy His torment on the cross. The deceased Teacher was removed and wrapped in a shroud, the prototype of which is taken out of the temple for the procession.
Good Friday lunch can consist of several sandwiches with vegetables or avocados with any salad, from the products available in the house. It can be sauerkraut or pickles, fresh vegetables cut into Korean strips.
Dinner: A fruit salad with instant cereal will get you ready for the next day.
More about the weeks associated with Lent:
Holy Saturday
The last week of the earthly life of Christ ended with His death. Christians honor the memory of the pain experienced by the disciples and relatives of the Teacher. A heavy stone hid the Savior forever, because the apostles did not yet know about the Resurrection.
In peace and quiet, services are held in churches, in the intervals between them, the consecration of paska and Easter cakes begins.
What great grace has been given to today's Christians, because tomorrow the whole world will be filled with the cry of "Christ is Risen!", but today the Orthodox limit themselves to food in memory of the burial of Jesus.
Many who fast on this day drink only water, but for the laity who are still weak in their faith, eating is allowed.
Menu of the sixth, last day of Great Lent:
- Breakfast: oatmeal seasoned with prunes.
- Lunch: Soup with mushrooms and beans.
- Dinner: Vegetable cabbage rolls.
We wish everyone on Sunday morning with a clear conscience to proclaim that the Lord Jesus has risen with new power in every heart.
Diet rules for Great Lent
Many people are interested in: what you can eat in fasting on Holy Week (from April 13 to April 18, 2020). During the days of Great Lent, believers remember the events that took place about two thousand years ago - the forty days that Jesus Christ spent in the wilderness, His sufferings (passions), death and burial.
At this time, it is forbidden to include animal products in the diet. These are meat and any meat dishes, fish and fish products, milk and all products based on it, eggs. In addition, during this period you can not drink alcoholic beverages.
Pay attention to ingredients on food labels to avoid animal ingredients found in chocolate, baked goods, fast food, and more.
What can you eat while fasting on Holy Week?
We will talk about the diet in Holy Week by day. What can you eat on Holy Week? AT Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week(April 13, 14 and 15, 2020 respectively) you must refrain from cooking, that is, limit yourself to raw vegetables and fruits.
Food should be taken only once a day, an exception is made for children, sick people and the elderly. During the day, you can drink unsweetened tea, herbal infusions and other drinks without sugar.
AT Maundy Thursday(April 16, 2020) you can eat hot food twice a day, add vegetable oil to dishes and drink some wine - in memory of the last meal of Jesus Christ with his disciples, when he predicted the betrayal of one of them.
AT Good Friday(April 17, 2020) You can’t eat until the shroud is taken out in the temple. You should talk to your confessor about the possibility of observing a strict fast.
With a less strict diet in Holy Week, you can include raw dishes in the menu, that is, not subjected to heat treatment: vegetables and fruits, dried fruits, nuts.
Holy Saturday April 18 (for 2020) until the first star appears is also considered the time of strict fasting, then dry eating is recommended. On this day, it is customary to consecrate Easter food in churches.
How to eat right during Holy Week?
As the monks say, the laity in fasting should not exhaust themselves with hunger, but refrain from overeating. Lenten menu can be designed so that it includes dishes familiar to you, but without ingredients that are of animal origin.
After all, food during Holy Week is not the main thing, and the main meaning of fasting is not dietary restrictions.
The meaning lies in repentance and spiritual renewal, and abstinence from food only contributes to this. Believers should first of all strive for spiritual purification by doing good deeds and spending time in prayer.
Great Saturday is considered the last day of fasting, and on the following Resurrection of Christ, no restrictions on food are expected. The fast that believers observe ends at midnight on the eve of the holiday, from the moment the priests symbolically open the doors of the temple.
Holy Week is the final period of the longest and strictest fast for Orthodox believers. Lent before Easter lasts seven weeks. Holy Week is the strictest of the entire period of fasting. It is, as it were, the last important test for believers.
Each day of Holy Week is called Great. During this period, it is customary to constantly think about Christ, read the Bible and meditate on the covenants of God. This is a time of not only strictly spiritual, but also physical abstinence. Therefore, many believers are interested in,.
It is important! Lent is the strictest of all the fasts that Orthodox believers observe throughout the year. But fasting cannot be equated with a diet, because the purpose of fasting is to make a person stronger, wiser and freer. Fasting helps to free oneself from the slavery of one's desires.
Maundy Monday (April 2) and Maundy Wednesday (April 4)
It is necessary to adhere to dry eating. You can eat bread, fresh vegetables and fruits, as well as pickled and dried vegetables and fruits, mushrooms. Heat treatment of food is not allowed. You can eat unboiled cold plant foods without adding oil, and drink only cold drinks. Eating, according to the church calendar of Great Lent, is allowed only once a day: in the evening.
You can eat hot vegetable food cooked with vegetable oil. You are allowed to eat twice a day. You can also drink some wine to strengthen your strength.
Many people want to know. You should try to completely refrain from eating. This day is considered the most difficult in the period of Lent before Easter. According to church literature, Jesus Christ was crucified on Friday.
Holy Saturday (April 7)
Some also try to abstain from eating, but the church calendar allows for one meal a day. It can be hot plant food, but without the addition of oil during its preparation.
Lent 2018: what not to eat
In many ways, the answer to the question of Holy Week 2018, what you can’t eat, will lie in the sphere of what you couldn’t eat at all during Lent. Under the ban for these seven weeks are all animal products with the exception of honey.
Therefore, you can not eat meat and fish, eggs, any dairy products, sweets and mayonnaise, non-lean pastries.
All alcoholic beverages during Lent are strictly prohibited. On weekends, you can drink a little wine diluted with water. One part red wine is taken to three parts water.
Folk traditions associated with Holy Week
Holy Week 2018: food is strict and limited, but these are not the only rites and traditions associated with this period. In Russia, this week was also called Red, Great and even Rusal (Belarusian version). During the week there was an active preparation for Easter. The owners washed their houses, put the plots in order, whitewashed the stove and walls.
From Thursday until Saturday, the housewives began to prepare dishes for the Easter table. They painted eggs and baked Easter cakes, baked meat. Men prepared firewood, set swings for the holiday. During this period, rural believers tried to talk to each other as little as possible, not to have fun and not to arrange gatherings. They believed that during Holy Week, evil spirits walk everywhere and only before Easter the spirits return to their graves.
Sayings and signs of Holy Week:
* Good Monday they go to the yard and sweep all the way with a broom;
* From Holy Monday to Easter, housewives have a lot to do;
* Whoever fasts on Good Friday will be saved from enemies and robbers;
* If there is a full moon on Maundy Thursday, then the spring will be rainy;
* If you heat the stove with aspen wood on Maundy Thursday, then the sorcerers will come to ask for ashes;
* Furnace ash, which was used to heat the stove on Good Thursday, Friday and Saturday, will help keep cabbage from worms;
* If you sow parsley on Good Friday, you can harvest a double crop;
Holy Week 2018: the diet prescribed by church books must be strictly observed by clergy and monks. Lay people should fast, focusing on the capabilities of their body. There are a number of diseases in which fasting must be completely abandoned.
Holy Week is the last and strictest week of Lent. During this period, it is important to observe all traditions and prohibitions in order to celebrate Easter correctly. In 2020, Holy Week begins on April 13, and Easter falls on April 19.
Passion Week for believing Christians is a special period, not only the most difficult for the body, but also the brightest for the soul. Translated from the Church Slavonic language, "passions" mean "trials and sufferings."
Passion Week is dedicated to events in the dying days of Christ's earthly life: the Last Supper, betrayal, suffering, crucifixion, burial and resurrection. The Holy Week before Easter is popularly called Red and Pure Week.
Benefits of fasting
The observance of the Orthodox fast gives a very great benefit to the human body. Some perceive it as a diet and suggest that it is only useful for people who are overweight. This is not true. This post is helpful for everyone. Lean food mainly consists of cereals, fruits and vegetables that contain a lot of fiber. Such food, like a universal cleaner, rids the body of toxins and toxins, normalizes weight and makes the body healthier. And one-day fasting is good for strengthening the body. Reducing the volume of the stomach during fasting reduces the need for food, especially since fasting food is very healthy and nutritious. Fasting is good for the sick and the healthy, the thin and the fat.
There is an opinion that Orthodox fasts are difficult to observe, many expect hunger pangs. This is not true. Those who try to fast are often surprised by the feeling of fullness without meat products. Nowadays, it is easy to prepare a lean meal with a variety thanks to a variety of recipes. Therefore, the question of what to eat on Holy Week does not cause a problem.
What to eat during Holy Week
All this week, a particularly strict fast is due for the sake of the Passion of Christ and for worthy preparation for the celebration of Easter. In the last 7 days of Lent, it is allowed to eat:
- Vegetables and fruits in fresh, dried, dried or any other form
- Mushrooms
- Fish (only for the Annunciation, April 7)
It is forbidden to cook food, i.e. boil or fry them. Instead of thermally processed food, you need to eat raw vegetables and fruits. At the same time, dishes prepared from them should be without the addition of vegetable oil. Drinks also have their own restrictions: only teas and some infusions are allowed. Of course, alcohol is completely prohibited. On the days of Holy Week, one evening meal is allowed.
Of course, any organism, even with excellent health, needs to allow small indulgences. Orthodoxy provides for a number of exceptions in the second half of Holy Week: starting from Thursday inclusive, Christians are allowed to take hot vegetable food cooked without adding oil. During this period, two meals a day are provided, including a small amount of red wine to maintain the strength of the body.
But such exceptions will need to be left on the day of Good Friday, which involves a complete abstinence from food. According to Scripture, Christ was crucified on this day. Therefore, Good Friday is a difficult day not only physically due to the complete rejection of food, but also spiritually, when a true Christian deeply experiences this tragic and terrible event.
During Lent, it is allowed to eat fish only twice: on the Annunciation, April 7, and on Palm Sunday, exactly one week before Easter.
Great Monday
Cold food without oil (for example, sauerkraut with cranberries, salted mushrooms, bread). Any, including boiled vegetable food without oil, is allowed.
Maundy Tuesday
Cold food without oil (mushroom caviar without oil, fresh cabbage and carrot salad with lemon juice, prunes).
Great Wednesday
Cold food without oil (cucumber, tomato and onion salad, bananas with oranges, olives).
Maundy Thursday (Maundy Thursday)
Cold food without oil (daikon with carrots and lemon juice, nuts, apples). Any vegetable food with vegetable oil is allowed.
Great Friday (Good Friday)
According to popular tradition, on Good Friday it is advisable to refuse food altogether.
Good, or Good Friday - on this day, a particularly strict fast is observed in memory of the day when Christ was sentenced to death and made his way of the cross to Golgotha. Until the shroud is taken out in temples (until about 4 p.m.) - food is not accepted. After - only raw vegetable food without oil or complete abstinence from food.
The last week of Great Lent is called Holy Week - it is dedicated to the last days of earthly life and the death of the Savior on the cross.
All days of Holy Week are special and are called Great or Passionate, and Old Testament stories are closely intertwined with what is happening in the last days of the earthly life of Jesus Christ.
In Orthodox churches, special services are held during Holy Week, which are considered the most majestic and solemn for the entire church year.
On Holy Week, the dead are not commemorated, the days of saints are not celebrated - at this time, all the rites are dedicated to preparing for Easter or the Bright Resurrection of Christ.
What are the days of Holy Week dedicated to and what can and cannot be eaten by day.
Holy week by day
Holy Monday- at church services on this day, they remember the Old Testament Patriarch Joseph, whom his brothers sold into slavery, as well as the curse of the sinful fig tree by Jesus Christ, which brings neither faith, nor prayers, nor true repentance.
The rite of chrismation also begins on Monday - it is made from a mixture of fragrant resins, vegetable oils and fragrant herbs and boiled under the incessant reading of prayers for three days.
On Good Tuesday in churches they remember the sermons of Jesus Christ about how the Savior spoke in the Jerusalem temple, about the parables told to the disciples, about the talents and ten virgins, the resurrection of the dead and the Last Judgment.
On Great Wednesday- they remember the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the Teacher for thirty pieces of silver, as well as the sinner who washed the feet of the Savior and anointed them with myrrh. On Wednesday people try to confess.
On Holy, or Maundy Thursday The Orthodox Church remembers the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with His disciples and the establishment by Him of the Sacrament of the Eucharist (Holy Communion). On Thursday, the congregation takes communion.
Red or Good Friday- a day of mourning, during the service they remember the suffering of the Savior on the cross. The shroud, the image of Christ lying in the tomb, is taken out of the altar, and the faithful bow before it.
On Holy Saturday at the solemn service they talk about the burial of Jesus Christ and his stay in the tomb. At the same time, priests already on this day put on bright festive vestments. Easter cakes brought by people to the temple, painted eggs and Easter are illuminated.
In Jerusalem, in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, the Holy Fire descends on Saturday, and the most important service begins in the evening - believers celebrate Easter.
What can and cannot be eaten daily
All the restrictions of Great Lent apply to Holy Week, but the last week is the strictest. During the whole week, some believers, if desired, take only water and bread.
In Holy Week, according to the monastery charter, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, dry food is prescribed, that is, bread, water, fruits, vegetables are allowed.
These days you can eat lean bread and thermally unprocessed food. That is, raw vegetables and fruits, as well as dried fruits, nuts, honey. Tea and compote these days are not recommended.
You can prepare salads from vegetables and fruits these days. Cut, for example, any fruit - pears, oranges, apples, bananas, add chopped dried fruits, raisins and nuts, and season everything with liquid honey. It will turn out delicious and very useful.
According to church canons, on the last Friday before Easter, they do not eat until the evening service.
Holy Saturday is the last day before the Bright Resurrection of Christ, when the Lord Himself was in the Tomb, believers observe a strict fast.
In 2018, the last Saturday before Easter falls on April 7, the day when the Orthodox world celebrates the Annunciation. Usually it is allowed to eat fish on a holiday, but due to the coincidence with Saturday, fish is not supposed to be eaten on this day.
Seriously ill people, pregnant women, the military, workers engaged in hard physical labor, travelers, nursing mothers, as well as children under seven years of age are exempt from fasting.
