Thanks for your questions. I welcome the opportunity to share some reflections with you as you explore the Eastern Church.

You’ve pretty much got it on Meatfare and Cheesefare Sundays. Eggs fall under “cheesefare”, which might be described as any food produced by an animal (versus food which is the animal, “meatfare”). So the last eggs before Lent are eaten on Cheesefare Sunday.

As for fish, practice varies. Some Byzantines will eat fish on Fridays. Some will eat fish Fridays through Sundays. Others only on special feast days that fall during Lent (as Annunciation often does). Others abstain from fish altogether.

For that latter group (I am one of them) you’re talking about a vegan fast of 46 days (40 days of Lent plus the 6 days of Holy Week). In my case, those 46 days are broken up by any special events like my children’s birthdays (if Ada wants pepperoni pizza on her birthday, daddy’s going to have some with her—and cake and ice cream, too), and my anniversary, which will fall in Lent all but one or two years out of our entire marriage.

The alcohol thing is my own take on a traditional abstention from wine during Lent—which like fish is total for some, all but feast days (Sundays and feasts like Annunciation) for others, etc. Since beer held the place in medieval Western Europe that wine did in Byzantium, it seems appropriate to me to abstain from beer (either instead or in addition to wine).

Personally I prefer to abstain from all alcohol, because to drink is to celebrate (if you’re doing it right—and I mean, if you’re drinking right and if you’re celebrating right)—to feast—and feasting is the opposite of fasting. Lent is the time to seek detachment from earthly goods, and in so doing to discover how strongly attached we really are to all these things which are not God.

Now I have heard of the Corinthian fast before. But is abstinence from alcohol a traditional practice? Or is that something that you personally do?

I understand your hesitance to discuss your fasting practices. But I do appreciate you writing this. I feel like I have learned something of value, and I will consider it prayerfully in preparation for this year’s Lent.

Your post is very encouraging, thankyou!