Easter in Australian Faith

Dietary Law

Until relatively recently, the most notable dietary law in Christianity was the Roman Catholic prescription to abstain from eating meat on Friday.

This ban was lifted as part of the modernisation of Roman Catholicism that was begun during the reign of Pope John XXIII.

In Roman Catholic abstinence meat is forbidden, but there is no restriction on the amount of food eaten; fasting means that the quantity of food is also restricted. Historically, there have been several categories of fasts.

The 40 days of Lent have traditionally been a period of mortification, including practices of fast and abstinence; the rules, however, have been greatly modified in recent years.

Ember Days—a Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday at each of the four seasons—seem to be survivals of full weekly fasts formerly practiced four times a year.

Vigils are single fast days that have been observed before certain feast days and other festivals.

Rogation Days are the three days before Ascension Day and are marked by a fast preparatory to that festival; they seem to have been introduced after an earthquake about 470 as penitential rogations, or processions, for supplication.

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