Fasting in the Christian calendar follows strict rules. Great Lent covers a period of seven weeks depending on the date Easter falls on, Easter being a moveable feast. The St. Peter’s and Assumption fasts last a fortnight, Wednesdays and Fridays are also fasting days. The Advent fast begins on 15 November, six weeks before Nativity. Yet, according to researchers, Bulgarians refrained from certain kinds of food even before their official conversion to Christianity in the 9th century.

In Christianity, fasting is more than abstaining from eating food of animal origin, it is a period when one turns away from sinful and evil thoughts, words or deeds. This also includes “wild revelry, horo (ring) dancing, carnal passions and pleasures.” To quote John Chrysostom: “The fast of Lent has no advantage to us unless it brings about our spiritual renewal. It is necessary while fasting to change our whole life and practice virtue. Turning away from all wickedness means keeping our tongue in check, restraining our anger, avoiding all gossip, lying and swearing. To abstain from these things – herein lies the true value of the fast. It is folly to abstain all day long from food, but fail to abstain from sin and selfishness.”

This is the moral fundament that is the bond with the traditional notion of abstinence, pointing humans in the right direction, preparing them for coming events in their own lives or the life of the community. As ethnologist Anany Stoynev writes: “In Bulgarian tradition, fasting is based on a syncretism of pre-Christian notions and beliefs and Christian dogmas and norms.” This finds expression in a break of the food prohibitions on certain folklore feast days, as well as of the ban on folklore games and horo dancing during the time of fasting. Instead of horos which invariably accompany folklore tradition, Bulgarians created the buenek or buenets – a horo that is not a closed circle and is danced to a song that usually accompanies the maiden rituals performed during Great Lent. According to popular belief, breaking off a fast is considered to be a bad sign that leads to troubles, evil and calamity for the individual but also for the family, and at times – even the whole village.

Folklore tradition has added many flourishes to the start of the fast and to its end, known as otgovyavane. The string of rituals preceding Christmas Eve, when the last meal of the fast is laid on the table, is a case in point. Researchers say that even in Antiquity, people observed seasonal restrictions, times when they abstained from certain kinds of food. There were different reasons for this. There were times in the farming cycle, when certain products were scarce and in this instance, abstaining from them was a way to regulate the food supply of the community. When preparations were underway for oblations, diet restrictions were also put in place – there had to be plenty of the products needed for the offering, so a ban was put on their consumption over a given period.

Fasting in folklore culture had a practical side to it, but also held a deep spiritual meaning. Abstaining from given products and turning one’s thoughts to the intangible, the invisible world is the fount of a sturdiness that will help humans overcome any trials and tribulations. Since the earliest of times, people have realized they are helpless in the face of natural processes and their only weapon was the power of the spirit. Fasting is regarded as a personal oblation – sacrificing earthly, secular things to embrace the immaterial, the eternal. Fasting tempers the spirit, turning our thoughts to the divine, humbling man in the face of adversity but giving him faith in the celestial forces. Once people said fasting creates prophets. In ancient times, shamans and high priests would fast before performing any religious rite. And they would instruct laymen, coming to them for counsel or support in these practices. Even in our day there are Orthodox priests who recommend fasting during periods, otherwise not designated for fasting in the Christian calendar. This is surely useful to know in our high tech, high speed age, an age that breeds desires of all kinds. Fasting – physical and spiritual – it a well-tried method of renewal and reappraisal, offering a different view of our lives, in work and in play.

English version: Milena Daynova