Natural bee honey is considered a versatile product. Traditional medicine recommends it both for general strengthening of the body and for combating a variety of ailments.
For Orthodox Christians, it is important to know if honey is possible during fasting. After all, the time of fasting is a period of special ascetic deeds, implying, along with spiritual sobriety, limiting oneself in delicacies and food of animal origin.
The content of the article
- 1 Features of lean nutrition
- 1.1 Plant origin
- 1.2 To eat or not to eat
- 1.3 Lent, Holy Week
- 2 Expert opinion
- 3 In conclusion – the facts
Features of lean nutrition
Restriction in food during fasts, and they can be one-day and many days, as before Easter, allows you to focus on the spiritual. Here we are talking not only and not so much about the exclusion of animal products from the menu, but also about the problem of overeating, pampering yourself with delicacies.
Abstinence in food, including delicacies, allows you to get rid of the main disadvantage of our time – the cult of consumption. Refusal of gluttony helps to cleanse not only the body, but also the soul from a variety of vices – anger, envy, despondency, fornication.
But what exactly are treats? The question of whether it is possible to eat honey during fasting is one of the most frequently asked Orthodox priests. An expert answer to it is given by the site Orthodoxy and the World, as well as by the popular Orthodox magazine “Thomas”.
We will only consider the main points (an extended version of the answer can always be found on the above Orthodox resources).
Plant origin
The most important point is the origin of the product.
The ban applies to products of animal origin. If the fast is strict, as, for example, before Easter or the Assumption of the Mother of God, traditionally it is not customary to eat even fish and seafood.
As for honey, it is vegetable product.
To eat or not to eat
The meaning of any fasting is the rejection of the excesses that make the body delicate and demanding. There are strict monastic regulations providing for dry food on fast days. In ancient times, individual devotees of piety used exclusively bread and water.
A person living an ordinary life is often not ready for such feats. Therefore, for him, all lean restrictions are reduced to the exclusion of meat, eggs, milk, dairy products, cheese from the diet. If required by the charter, fish and seafood are also removed from the menu.
For special deeds, a blessing is taken from a spiritual father – a priest who helps to establish spiritual life, and well aware of all the features of a particular person. He, just, can bless on abstinence from honey or other sweets not specified in the charter. But this is an exception, not a general rule.
Lent, Holy Week
Whether honey is possible during Lent depends on the recommendations of the confessor. If there are no special instructions, you do not need to refuse the medical product. Moreover, this is not only sweetness, but also a remedy that helps to strengthen immunity in the spring and get rid of vitamin deficiency.
To read:
Natural bee honey – benefits and possible harm
Another question of interest to many, is it possible to have honey in fasting before Easter? On Holy Week, preceding Easter, it is customary to aggravate the fast. Christians visit the temple every day, defend hours of worship. Exactly the same feat is undertaken in the first week of fasting, during which dry eating is practiced.
There are no exceptions to the general rules in this case! You can eat honey.
Expert opinion
Here’s how to answer the question regarding honey in posts priest Maxim Kaskun, rector of the Tikhvin church in the village of Vypukovo, Sergiev Posad region:
“When did honey become an animal product? Bees have always been insects. And everything that comes from insects – honey and other products, of course, can be eaten.
Complementing this answer, we add on our own that John the Baptist ate during the strictest abstinence from food in the Judean Desert, including “wild honey.” This is directly stated in the Gospel.
Another indicative answer from the abbot of the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos in the village of Rybachye in the Simferopol and Crimean diocese Igor Silchenkov:
Father Igor advises not to abuse healthy sweetness, since moderation in nutrition is more consistent with the spirit of abstinence. But you can introduce it into the diet without any fear.
In conclusion – the facts
The honey product is used to sweeten the coliva blessed by the church on the Friday of the first week of Lent.
At the request of the hostesses, it is also used in the preparation of koliva, offered up in honor of deceased relatives and loved ones on memorial Saturdays of Great Lent. It is put in kutya, which is cooked on Christmas Eve, January 6th.
On the Assumption Lent, honey is consecrated separately for the so-called honey Savior on August 14, and it is also consecrated along with apples and grapes for the Transfiguration of the Lord on August 19.
Obviously, there is only one correct answer to the question of whether it is possible to use honey during fasting – yes! It does not matter what kind of abstinence it is – strict, with or without eating fish, one day or many days. Do not be afraid to sweeten lean pancakes, porridge, raw fruits, or add honey to baked goods. It is tasty, healthy and not sinful.
