Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2024 All Rights Reserved

Great Lent begins

Photo: pravoslavie.bg

Today is the first day of the longest fasting period in Orthodox Christian tradition. Strict fasting is observed during the first and last week, and apart from animal and dairy foods, which are excluded during the entire fasting period, vegetable fats such as oil and olive oil are not allowed either. Fish and invertebrates such as snails, mussels, etc. are allowed on March 25 (Annunciation) and April 28 (Palm Sunday). In order for the fasting to be salvific, it must be blessed by a priest who also guides people how to fast.

 Pregnant women, children and people with health problems are exempt from fasting during the Great Lent. Fasting also implies abstinence from sinful and evil thoughts and deeds. Thus, the laity can welcome the Resurrection of Christ with pure hearts. This year Easter falls on May 5.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Photo: National Museum of Natural History of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Paleontologists find more than 30 animal fossils from the time of the dinosaurs near Trun

What was the animal world like in the region of what is today the town of Trun more than 80 million years ago – that is the question paleontologists from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences’ National Museum of Natural History have been trying to answer...

published on 10/6/24 6:35 AM
Tsar Boris III

Exhibition in Sofia on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the birth of Tsar Boris III

The National History Museum celebrates the 130th anniversary of the birth of Tsar Boris III with the exhibition "Tsar Boris III. Personality and Statesman" . It will be opened today in the central lobby of the museum. The exhibition will present, in..

published on 10/3/24 6:05 AM

Why a new Pan-Orthodox Council must be convened in Sofia

26 years ago, on 30 September, at the initiative of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC), a Pan-Orthodox Council was convened in Sofia to resolve the schism within the Bulgarian clergy . Then, despite the efforts of Patriarch Bartholomew of Istanbul to..

published on 9/30/24 7:05 AM