| The Fasts of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church |
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When do we fast?
The Armenian Church along with all of the historic Orthodox and Catholic Churches has several penitential periods of fasting throughout the Church year. In addition to these special seasons of repentance, Eastern Christians regularly fast every Wednesday and Friday throughout the entire year. The practice of reckoning these two days of the week as fast days is a most ancient Tradition of the universal Church which was enshrined in the earliest Christian document outside of the New Testament, entitled the “Didache” or “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” written between 70-90 A.D. The letter states, “Let not your fasts fall on the same days as the hypocrites who fast Monday and Thursday. Rather, you should fast on Wednesday and Friday.” These two days are significant because Wednesday was the day Judas Iscariot connived with the Jewish religious authorities to betray our Lord, and Friday, of course, was the day our Lord was Crucified for our sins.
As mentioned above, besides these ordinary fast days, we also fast during special seasons designated as penitential by the Church. Ordinarily these consist of one week fasts before all of the significant Feasts of the Church...
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