For some, it’s a means of penance, reflection, and purification; for others, it’s a grand celebration that releases hidden energy. Despite different approaches, fasting serves a similar function in many different religions and cultures.
It’s unusually quiet in Marrakech’s Jemaa El-Fnaa Square this afternoon. The juice vendors are seated, subdued. There are hardly any street entertainers to be seen. The souvenir sellers are dozing off in their chairs. The con artists are somewhat lethargic too. There’s no shouting; even the seemingly ever-present snake charmer has disappeared.
“Is it any wonder?” asks Karim, a fifteen-year-old sales assistant in one of the ubiquitous clothing stores. “Everyone’s getting tired of Ramadan. But we’re right at the end. Just wait until tomorrow.”
Indeed, the next night the city changes as if by magic. Ramadan, the holy month of Sawm—the Muslim equivalent of Lent—is coming to an end. When the moon appears in the sky, Eid al-Fitr, the Festival of Breaking the Fast, begins. The medina—in fact, the whole city—is teeming with life. According to tradition, people exchange dates with loved ones and strangers. The Prophet Muhammad is said to have broken his fast in this way, by eating dates and drinking water. The following hours are spent in celebration. At two o’clock in the morning, outside my riad (a traditional hotel with a plant-filled internal courtyard), it’s as noisy and lively as a central Warsaw street during rush hour. People are dancing and singing; raising toasts and wishing each other “Eid Mubarak,” meaning “blessed feast/ festival” in Arabic.
At dawn, crowds gather in front of the Masjid al-Kutubiyya, the Mosque of the Booksellers, one of Marrakech’s iconic buildings. Its name comes from the Arabic word kitab, meaning “book”; in the Middle Ages, books were traded here as a rare and desirable commodity. Today, though, the focus is not on reading. People fall to their knees, thanking Allah for once again helping them endure a whole month of fasting. They give alms, shake hands. Then some take to the streets, while others return home to feast with their loved ones. Still others stay for the voluntary evening Tarawih prayer, which the Prophet Muhammad recited with his companions for three nights in a row.
The festivities last two or three days. You can sense the enthusiasm and joy in the air—and no wonder. After twenty-nine or thirty days of sacrifice, Moroccans, like all Muslims, are returning to their old rhythm of life. According to the rules of Ramadan, over the last month, between dawn and dusk, they were not allowed to eat, drink, smoke, have intercourse or indulge in any other bodily pleasures, play loud games, swear, gossip, or—according to some interpretations—use electronic devices. Only women who are pregnant, nursing, or menstruating, as well as the seriously ill, travelers, children, and the elderly, are exempt from the strict fast. Fasting days that are missed for some reason must be made up at another time, and no devout Muslim will shirk this responsibility. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam (the others are profession of faith, prayer, almsgiving, and pilgrimage to Mecca), so it is extremely important. It commemorates the moment when the archangel Jibril (Gabriel) began to reveal the Koran to Muhammad in 610 CE.
“Sawm is supposed to be a time of reflection on one’s own fate and the world,” explains Ibrahim, the owner of the riad where I’m staying. “During this month, all disputes and conflicts should cease. Fasting is meant to bring people closer to God. For this period, people aren’t absorbed in their usual duties, or the pursuit of money and worldly goods; they have a chance to focus on their spirituality. And that’s exactly what happens. I really see a change in my neighbors during this time. For this month, they become someone else, someone better. For them, it’s an authentic, joyful celebration.”
Sawm doesn’t apply to members of other religions or atheists. Nowadays, it is also observed much less rigorously than in the past. In many Muslim countries, some cafes and restaurants remain open for tourists, but out of respect for Muslims, they tend not to have seating outside on the streets. For the same reason, people shouldn’t eat, drink, or smoke in public places and everyone should wear modest clothes that cover the shoulders and knees.
Ramadan always falls on the ninth month of the Muslim lunar calendar, which means that it is a movable feast (the year in the Muslim calendar is usually eleven days shorter than in the Gregorian calendar, causing a shift in the date of the holiday). The name of the holy month comes from the Arabic word ar-ramad, which means “scorching heat.” Its starting point is determined based on the shape of the moon: a hilal, or crescent moon, should be visible in the sky.
“Even the TV schedule changes in the lead-up to Ramadan. There are more programs encouraging reflection and prayer,” adds Ibrahim.
Every day during Ramadan in Morocco, just after sunset, you can hear the zowaka—the sound of an aid raid siren announcing the end of fasting. People say the evening prayer, Maghrib, and then sit down to a dinner called iftar (literally: “breaking the fast”). At dawn, inhabitants of Moroccan cities are woken by Musaharati drummers in the streets, indicating that it’s time for suhoor, the last meal before the next day of fasting.
Iftar is often celebratory, but it’s not a very large meal. After a whole day of fasting, the stomach can’t withstand a huge feast. People start with dates (preferably in an odd number, according to custom), before serving harira (soup with chickpeas), boiled meat with rice or groats, salad, hard-boiled eggs, and candy, and washing it all down with water, milk, tea, or juice made from dried fruit.
The day at the end of Ramadan—Eid al-Fitr (the Festival of Breaking the Fast, also called Ramadan Bayram)—is a time of love, forgiveness, and charity for the nearly two billion Muslims around the world. People dress in their best clothes and prepare celebratory dishes. Wishes and gifts are exchanged, cultivating a sense of family or community unison. In accordance with the orders of the Koran, people also help those in need. Rulers exercise their right of pardon and announce amnesties.
A Time of Reconciliation
The fasting experience is quite similar for Jews. The most important of the Judaic fasts, and the main Jewish holiday, is Yom Kippur. It is celebrated on the tenth day of the month of Tishri, so it is a movable feast. Yom Kippur, meaning “Day(s) of Atonement,” is one of the most solemn events in the Jewish calendar. It is sometimes referred to as the “Sabbath of Sabbaths,” and ends the ten-day penitential cycle of Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe) that began on Rosh Hashanah (the first day of the Jewish new year, literally: “head of the year”).
According to Jewish tradition, during Yom Kippur, those who are neither unequivocally good nor unequivocally evil—so the vast majority of people—are subject to divine judgment. Their behavior on the day of the holiday will decide their fate in their future life beyond earth. The third book (Vayikra) of the Torah (23: 29–32) says:
Those who do not deny themselves on that day
must be cut off from their people.
I will destroy from among their people
anyone who does any work on that day.
You shall do no work at all.
This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come,
wherever you live.
It is a day of sabbath rest for you,
and you must deny yourselves.
From the evening of the ninth day of the month
until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.
Traditionally, the day before Yom Kippur began, a ritual called kaparot (penance, supplication) was held. Nowadays, only the most orthodox Jews observe this practice. It involves the symbolic transfer of sins to another living creature, most often a rooster or hen. The animal is then ritually killed, ridding the human of their sins. People also ask their loved ones, friends, and acquaintances to forgive the wrongs done to them.
According to the divine word, the holiday begins at sunset and ends the following evening, lasting twenty-five hours in total. During that time, it is forbidden to eat, drink, smoke, have sexual intercourse, drive a car, bathe (even rinsing the mouth is off limits), use cosmetics, apply perfume, cut your hair, or wear leather shoes. Work of any kind is also banned. All this is intended to “torment the soul,” and the goal is bodily and spiritual cleansing through the practice of forgiveness of sins and penance for one’s own sins. On the eve of the holiday, people light Sabbath candles, as well as a special, large candle that is supposed to last until the end of Yom Kippur.
“During Yom Kippur, Jews pray and self-mortify,” says Chaim, a friend of mine from Israel. “It’s supposed to make them better people. For the less pious, this is the only day of the year when they obey religious orders. Before Yom Kippur begins, many people go to visit family graves and the graves of famous tzaddikim. [Trans. note: “tzaddik” means a spiritual leader or guide in the Hasidic community, or a righteous or saintly person according to Jewish religious standards.] They leave offerings at the graves—sometimes it might be some chicken, sometimes a small amount of money. The men also go to the mikveh, the Jewish bathhouse, where they ritually wash away the dirt of the world. Then there’s a ceremonial dinner, five minutes before the start of the holiday.”
During Yom Kippur, life in Israeli cities, and in Jewish neighborhoods around the world, grinds to a halt. With no cars around, the streets are full of pedestrians, cyclists, runners, and skateboarders. The shops are closed. The usual TV programs aren’t broadcast. Many Jews visit the synagogue to sing and ask Yahweh for forgiveness, especially for the promises they haven’t kept. They dress in festive white robes with a tallis, or prayer shawl, over their shoulders. Confessions are made directly before the Most High. When Yom Kippur ends at dusk, people feel purified, reconciled with God. This is a necessary step in order to enter the Jewish New Year with peace.
The other fasts before the Jewish holidays of Purim and Pesach are somewhat similar, although not as festive. The former is celebrated to commemorate the Jews’ avoidance of annihilation in the Persian city of Susa. The name of the fasting day preceding Purim (the Feast of Lots) is Taanit Esther—the Fast of Esther—who, according to the Old Testament, saved the Jewish people from the wrath of the king of Persia. The holiday of Pesach and the fast that precedes it commemorate the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.
Asceticism and Lemon Fasting
I encounter Hindu fasting for the first time in an ashram in southern India. For a few days I try to live like its residents. First, we switch to a restrictive vegan diet, before beginning a strict fast. We pass long hours drinking only water, cleansing our bodies, and focusing on connecting with our spirituality. According to the Indian scriptures, fasting enables the harmonious union of body and soul. It allows the deflection of attention from trivial, banal, and mundane matters. This is necessary to align the mind with the absolute. Only a body that is exhausted by fasting is able to open up to a higher being.
Hindus fast several times a year. The days of fasting are usually designated by the moon: during the full moon (Purnima), as well as on the eleventh day after the new moon and the eleventh day after the full moon (both are called Ekadashi). There are also many fasts related to the worship of Hindu gods, often local ones that are known within specific provinces. These fasts come down to individual choice. Followers of Vishnu fast at certain times, and those of Shiva, Ganesha, or Hanuman at other times. Some of the constraints involved are less restrictive. For example, sometimes a fast can be based on refraining from eating lemons. Other times, grains are forbidden, and sometimes people can only eat fruit (falahar). Some people fast to celebrate the birth of a son, or to mark their mother’s funeral. Then there’s Chaturmasam—a holy period covering four consecutive months of the Hindu Samvatsara calendar (from mid-July to mid-October), coinciding with the monsoon season in India. This is a time of sacrifice, fasting, penance, and bathing in holy rivers.
As well as religious motivations, fasting is often undertaken for health-related reasons on the subcontinent. Ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine, encourages regular fasting. According to its teachings, sustained abstinence from food cleanses the body and removes toxins. When not engaged in digestion, the internal organs have a chance to regenerate, and energy channels can become unblocked. As a result, the entire body regains homeostasis. It is best to fast in early autumn or spring, between the two more extreme seasons of winter and summer.
In India, it is common practice to fast during the great religious festivals, such as Maha Shivaratri (literally: “Great Night of Shiva”—the festival of the god Shiva) or Janmashtami (celebrating the birth of Krishna). As part of the Navaratri festival, people fast for nine days; during the Durga Puja festival, which is especially popular in West Bengal, fasting falls on the eighth or ninth day.
Great respect is given in India to holy men, hermits, and ascetics, known as sadhus. Many of them congregate in Haridwar (one of four holy cities where religious festivals are organized) during the Maha Kumbha Mela, or Pitcher Festival, which takes place every three years. This is the largest religious gathering in the world, where several million people descend on the city to bathe in the sacred river Ganges. Sadhus are ubiquitous during this time, dressed in saffron robes (the color of holiness in India) or smeared with ash, their hair piled up in matted dreadlocks. They don’t cut their hair or shave their faces, and they live on donations. Their philosophy is one of renouncing worldly possessions. In their own words, they have no friends or enemies, they don’t feel joy or sadness, and they have no need for any but the most basic material things. Some even get rid of their clothes. “The earth is our home, the sky our shelter. There’s nothing else we need,” I’m told by the Naga Babas I meet in Haridwar—naked hermits, sitting in the lotus position in a cloud of hashish smoke. The sadhus mortify their bodies to reach a higher level of spirituality and rid themselves of the illusions we are fed by the material world. Among the tools they use for this purpose are long hours of meditation, as well as fasting, which sometimes takes extreme forms. During the Maha Kumbha Mela in 2001, a Japanese ascetic and yogi called Yogmata Keiko Aikawa allowed herself to be locked away for three days in a ten-foot-deep pit, which was covered with corrugated iron and earth. During this time, she didn’t eat or drink, and her oxygen supply was very limited. She reached a state in which she was, according to her spiritual master, “beyond knowledge, thought, and feeling.” She emerged from her retreat as if nothing had happened, smiling. This ritual, known to various Indian philosophies and religions, is called samadhi.
Buddhist fasting is similar, although not as rigorous. According to the Buddha’s instructions, fasting is the path to enlightenment. Prince Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, allegedly devoted himself to meditation and extreme asceticism for forty-nine days, which allowed him to gain omniscience: to know all his incarnations and the secret of suffering. Some contemporary Buddhist monks still tread the path of asceticism, limiting themselves to one meal a day. Many are vegans or vegetarians, and they often take steps to avoid living in luxury. However, this is not a religious commandment. The Buddha himself recommended moderation and mindful eating rather than the restrictive practices of starvation and bodily mortification. Still, some Buddhist students choose to observe a strict eighteen-day fast, during which they drink only small amounts of water.
Not on Bread Alone
In the Christian tradition, fasting was usually a penance for sins. The goal was to help people distance themselves from temptations and material things, and look deeper inside themselves. Over time, it also began to be associated with preparation for celebrating important holidays and receiving the sacraments. In the first centuries after Christ, fasts typically lasted a few days; it was only in the fourth century CE that a forty-day fast before Easter was introduced. This was the same length of time that Jesus fasted in the desert. Luke the Evangelist wrote: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone.’” (Luke 4: 1–4)
The tradition of Advent—fasting associated with waiting for the second coming of Christ—also emerged in the fourth century. The Advent fast was not strict, but involved eating one meal a day. More than a thousand years later, during the Council of Constance (1414–1418), the Vatican officially announced the mandate of the Eucharistic fast. According to the papal recommendations, anyone who wanted to receive Holy Communion could not eat any food from midnight of the night before. This regulation remained in force until 1964, when Pope Paul VI shortened the Eucharistic fast to one hour.
Nowadays, Christians restrict their eating during Lent in the lead-up to Easter, on Ash Wednesday, which commemorates the transience of life and the need to repent for one’s sins, and on Good Friday, which marks the day of Jesus’s death on the cross. Many people observe a strict fast on that day. Some Christians also refrain from eating meals until dusk on the day before Christmas.
In the Catholic Church, fasting is divided into quantitative and qualitative. The former is based on eating one full meal and two light meals on specific days; children under fourteen years of age, adults over sixty, and the seriously ill are exempt. Qualitative fasting, meanwhile, prohibits the eating of meat, with more detailed guidelines provided by local bishops. For example, in Poland, the ban on eating meat on Christmas Eve was lifted in 2003. Since then, meat dishes have been permitted as part of the traditional pre-Christmas supper. Qualitative fasting is still obligatory on all Fridays, except liturgical days of the highest rank, such as the first Friday after Easter. The ban on eating meat on the fifth day of the week was introduced in the twelfth century to celebrate the day of Jesus’s death. Today, many people—parishioners and clergy alike—approach this recommendation quite freely; nonetheless, according to church doctrine, failure to comply with the rule is still considered a minor sin. In exceptional cases, however, a parish priest may grant someone a dispensation from fasting, releasing them from certain forms of abstinence.
Another topic of interest is what the Catholic Church actually considers meat. While the common classification includes pork, beef, game, poultry, and all elements of animal bodies such as offal, marrow, brain, and blood, as well as suet, fat, and lard, the definition of the forbidden meal is not completely clear. Take seafood and other aquatic creatures, such as frogs, snails, and turtles, for example; or beaver tails, which were once eaten with relish in some parts of Europe, contributing to the decline of the beaver population. The current provision of the 1917 Code of Canon Law doesn’t classify beaver tails as “meat,” making them acceptable on Catholic tables. Waterfowl are much more contentious, dividing the opinions of church hierarchs. Many advise leaving duck out of the equation.
Balance
Regardless of what we believe in (if anything), there is a growing body of scientific research indicating that mindful fasting is beneficial. The doctors of antiquity knew that controlled, intentional fasting could have a therapeutic function. According to Hippocrates and Galen—and contemporary physicians and dietitians agree—certain restrictions on food intake serve to cleanse the body and protect it against numerous diseases. Similar theories were also put forward by the Persian scholar Avicenna, who lived around the turn of the eleventh century, and the twelfth-century German mystic Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard proposed that fasts should last from six to ten days, with plenty of fluids and no solid food—which, it was suggested, would enable a person to regain balance of body and soul.
While working on this text, the author fasted for a total of sixteen hours. When he finished, after dark, he sat down to enjoy iftar.
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