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.