Lasts from March 28 to April 3. In the church calendar it is called the Worship of the Cross. If you fast from the very beginning, no longer scares you with restrictions. The body has learned to get enough energy from lean dishes.
The schedule of allowed dishes in the third week of fasting looks like this:
Third week of Lent, nutrition
Monday, March 28- raw food diet without oil.
Tuesday, March 29
Wednesday, March 30- raw food diet without oil.
Thursday, March 31- boiled food without adding oil.
Friday, April 1- raw food diet without oil.
Saturday, April 2- boiled dishes with butter, wine.
Sunday, April 3- boiled dishes with butter; wine.
Lent, third week: what you can eat
We offer you an approximate menu for the third week of fasting. Seven ideas for lean breakfasts, lunches and dinners that you can change and combine at your discretion.
Third week of fasting: breakfast menu
Rice porridge on water, with honey, dried apricots and crushed nuts.
Lenten banana pancakes with jam.
Oatmeal with fresh fruit or berries.
Lenten cupcakes with chocolate filling.
Buckwheat porridge with mushrooms.
Lenten pancakes with mushrooms or fruit marmalade.
Paste of ground chickpeas or beans with fresh vegetables.
Third week of Lent: lunch menu
Pearl barley porridge and mushroom caviar with onions and carrots.
Beans stewed in tomato, with onions, carrots and sweet peppers.
Stewed cabbage with mushrooms.
Potato salad with pickles and herbs.
Vegetable vinaigrette with mushrooms and beans.
Rassolnik with donuts made from lean yeast dough.
Soup with mushrooms and lentils.
Third week of Lent: dinner menu
Pumpkin and lentil soup.
Cabbage cutlets with mushroom gravy.
Country-style potatoes with sauerkraut salad.
Rice with spices and seaweed salad.
Potato zrazy with mushrooms.
Steamed dumplings made from lean dough with mushrooms or cabbage.
Potatoes baked with mushrooms and spices.
January 5, 2019
For all Christians, Lent is the preparation of body and spirit for the great and bright holiday of Easter. By accepting the rules of fasting, a person must pacify his desires both in food and in behavior, he must resist all possible temptations and be ready to cleanse himself spiritually.
Lent is the longest and strictest, established in honor of the memory of the 40-day fasting of Jesus Christ in the desert. The duration of the fast is 48 calendar days. The first 40 days symbolize the savior's journey through the desert during which Jesus fasted and ate practically nothing. The remaining 7 days of fasting are considered Holy Week, which symbolizes the last 7 days of the life of our savior Jesus Christ.
This post does not have a fixed start or end date. As mentioned above, it lasts for seven weeks leading up to Easter. And since Easter is a movable holiday, then Lent is also movable. And it can fall on almost any date during the first one and a half spring months.
Easter is quite late this year and will be celebrated on April 28th. Accordingly, the fast ends the day before April 27, and it begins on Monday seven weeks earlier.
Thus, after making simple calculations, we can say that Lent in 2019 will begin on March 11 and end on April 27. It will last exactly 48 days.
Very often, people far from the church compare these days of abstinence from food with a diet, but this is far from true. These days, abstaining from food is an accompanying element. Basically, these days are a lot of spiritual work on oneself; Christians read special prayers and bring themselves closer to God, while simultaneously distancing themselves from earthly temptations and worldly pleasures.
Lent is one of the strictest fasts in the Orthodox Church. During fasting, it is forbidden to eat meat, milk, eggs. Any derivatives of meat products are also prohibited from consumption.
The essence of fasting is not to simply limit ourselves in food, but in the fact that by consciously limiting ourselves in food, we at least for a short time, not much, give ourselves a chance to muffle the animal nature in ourselves; we hold it back, giving room to the spirit.
After all, the main purpose of fasting is not to limit yourself in food. The purpose of fasting calls for spiritual rebirth, modesty not only in food, but also in life.
These days it is not advisable to have fun, go to parties and celebrations. It is also not recommended to cut your hair as it can become sparse. You should refrain from drinking alcohol and swearing.
In the first week, restrictions are especially strict. On the first day you cannot eat, but from Tuesday to Friday you can eat bread, salt, honey, dried fruits, and berries. On Saturday and Sunday it is allowed to eat hot food with vegetable oil.
In the second and sixth weeks of fasting, dry eating is prescribed on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday you can have hot food without oil. And responsibly, on Saturday and Sunday you can have warm food with butter.
The seventh week is called Passion Week; fasting is especially strict during these days. For four days, only dry eating is allowed, and on Friday it is prescribed to refuse food altogether. These days you can eat only after the first star appears in the sky. Lent ends with the holiday of Great Easter. On this day, all restrictions regarding food are lifted.
First week of Lent
On the first day there is a complete refusal to eat. From Tuesday to Friday, only raw, non-hot food is allowed. Raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, dried fruits, honey and black bread.
On Saturday and Sunday of the first week you can taste stewed vegetables and fruits. With the addition of any vegetable oil and wine. 
Second week of Great Lent
03/18/19, 03/20/19 and 03/22/19 – dry eating;
03/19/19 and 03/21/19 – boiled vegetable food without oil;
03/23/19, 03/24/19 – heat-treated vegetable and fruit foods with oil and wine. 
Third week of Great Lent
The nutritional rules for the third week are almost the same as for the second week. This is mainly meat-free food with slight concessions on Saturday and Sunday. In temples and churches, parishioners worship the Holy Cross.
03/25/19, 03/27/19, 03/29/19 – dry eating;
03/26/19 and 03/28/19 – boiled, stewed vegetables and fruits without oil;
03/30/19 and 03/31/19 – boiled vegetable and fruit food with added oil, wine.
The menu is almost identical to the previous two weeks, with one concession in honor of the Annunciation. This is a very big holiday for the Orthodox, comparable to Great Easter. The date of this holiday always falls exactly nine months before the Nativity of Christ. This year, this holiday falls on a Sunday, and for those who strictly adhere to fasting, they are allowed to eat fish and starvation foods on this day.
Fourth week of Great Lent
Lent in 2019. Fourth week
04/01/19, 04/03/19 and 04/05/19 – dry eating;
04/02/19 and 04/04/19 – boiled and stewed vegetable and fruit foods with butter;
04/06/19 and 04/07/19 – heat-processed vegetarian food with vegetable oil and wine.
On Annunciation 04/07/19 you can have some fish.
Fifth week of Great Lent
Week of Palm Branches. They remember the Venerable Mary of Egypt. The menu for the fifth week remains the same as for weeks 2 and 3. 
Passion Week
The sixth week ends with Palm Sunday. On this day, a slight relaxation in food is allowed on Saturday and Sunday. 
Seventh week of Great Lent
This week is also called the week of the Lord's suffering or Holy Week. They remember the last days of Christ's life, the Last Supper, the betrayal of Judas, the trial, crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus Christ.
There are special strictures in food. You are allowed to eat only once a day and only after the first star appears in the sky. On Friday it is better to refuse food altogether. On this day they remember the last hours of the life of the son of the Lord, pray and mourn over his fate. 
Lent ends with the bright holiday of Easter or the Bright Resurrection of Christ. In 2019, this holiday falls on April 28. On this day all food restrictions are lifted. You can eat anything, but if you have strictly fasted, remember you need to get out of this stress gradually, since during fasting the body has learned to work completely differently and sudden consumption of fatty and heavy foods can harm you. So come out of fasting gradually.
How to prepare yourself for fasting
Lent is a serious matter and you need to approach it with special severity towards yourself. You need to start preparing for Lent long before it begins. Preparations begin 3-4 weeks in advance. The entire week of seven (from February 18 to 24) is devoted exclusively to fully preparing the soul for fasting.
From February 25 to March 3, during Meat Week, on Wednesday and Friday, complete abstinence from eating meat. During Maslenitsa week from March 4 to 10, you should completely try not to eat meat. Switch to fish and animal products. But all without meat. During the preparatory period, you need to pray more often and spend more time reading the Bible.
What to do if it is not difficult to adhere to the strict rules of Lent
In this case, I suggest watching a video about what to do if it has become very difficult to adhere to the rules of Lent?
In conclusion, I would like to add that Lent is voluntary. And if you have health problems, it is better to consult a doctor on this issue or consult with your spiritual mentor. After all, the main goal of this fast is not abstinence from food, but spiritual cleansing.
Meals by day during Nativity Fast
2 week
3 week
4 week
5 week
week 6
What foods can you eat during Lent?
black bread, cereal crispbread;
mushrooms;
cereals (buckwheat, oatmeal, rice, corn, wheat, etc.);
seasonal vegetables;
salted and pickled vegetables, as well as jam;
legumes (peas, beans, chickpeas, lentils);
fruits in season;
dried fruits, nuts, honey;
fish, but it is allowed to eat it this year only on Palm Sunday (April 1).
From Monday to Friday, unless there is a holiday on these days, vegetable oil is not consumed.
Advent 2018: nutrition calendar by day
There are different degrees of strictness in observing food fasting: the monastic charter (it also comes in varying degrees of severity) and restrictions imposed on themselves by the laity with the blessing of the priest.
The strictest abstinence: “dry eating” (refusal of cooked food) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; on Tuesdays and Thursdays, wine and vegetable oil are allowed with cooked food. Eating fish is allowed on Saturday and Sunday, as well as on church holidays. In the last week of the Nativity Fast from January 2 to January 6, fish is prohibited even on Saturday and Sunday. The strictest fast is on January 6, Christmas Eve, when it is allowed to eat only “sochivo” - a dish made from wheat grains, and even then only “after the first star.”
The monastic charter is difficult to apply to working or unhealthy people. Therefore, believers living the ordinary life of a modern person impose the following restrictions on themselves: in their dietary regime they refuse to eat meat, butter, milk, cheese, sour cream, eggs, poultry, alcohol; they eat fish on all days except Wednesday and Friday.
What should you not do during the Nativity fast?
During fasting, there are restrictions not only on food consumption. First of all, of course, you cannot sin. Believers also consciously refuse entertainment. Weddings and weddings cannot be held. Drunkenness is considered one of the most serious sins. Drinking wine during the Nativity Fast is allowed, but moderation must be observed.
Nativity Fast 2018-2019, daily nutrition calendar for the laity. What can you eat during the Nativity Fast?
On all days of fasting, meat, dairy products and eggs are excluded. On some days fish and vegetable oil are excluded.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday of Advent - the consumption of any food of animal origin is prohibited, including meat, fish, eggs, milk and dairy products. Also on these days you should not drink vegetable oil and wine, hot drinks, including coffee and compotes. It is allowed to eat only food of plant origin that has not been subject to heat treatment, uncooked food, bread, fresh, dried or soaked vegetables and fruits;
Tuesday and Thursday - hot vegetable food with vegetable oil is allowed;
Saturday and Sunday - hot vegetable food with vegetable oil, fish and wine are allowed;
On November 21, on the feast of the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary, hot vegetable food with vegetable oil, fish and wine are allowed.
From December 20 to December 23, during the pre-celebration of the Nativity of Christ, you should follow the following diet:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday - dry eating should be observed;
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday - you can eat hot food with vegetable oil;
December 24, on Christmas Eve, you can eat hot food with vegetable oil. In addition, according to custom, they eat sochivo, a sweet porridge made from wheat, rice or other cereals, usually only after Vespers.
Lent in 2019 runs from March 11 to April 27, marking dramatic changes in the diet of all believers. Lent is one of the strictest fasts in the church calendar, beginning seven weeks before Easter and lasting 48 days.
It consists of Pentecost, symbolizing Christ's fasting in the desert for 40 days, and Holy Week, reminiscent of the last days of Christ's life, his crucifixion and resurrection.
How to eat during Lent
During Lent, it is prohibited to consume animal products, including meat, eggs and milk, as well as products made with eggs and milk.
For example, cakes, pastries, cookies, pastries - all this is prohibited. The consumption of fish and vegetable oil is allowed only on certain days, while the inclusion of seafood such as squid, shrimp or mussels in the diet is not prohibited.
Allowed products include vegetables, fruits, cereals, legumes, mushrooms, nuts, dried fruits, honey, sugar, halva, dark chocolate and sauces, including lean mayonnaise. You can also include egg-free pasta and bread made without milk or eggs in your diet.
Don’t forget about homemade preserves, which will allow you to diversify the Lenten menu on certain days, and about greens, which can make the taste of Lenten dishes more pronounced.
If you can’t imagine your life without milk, soy or coconut milk can be a real lifesaver for you.
It is worth noting that fasting does not mean starving at all, and if you think through your diet rationally, you will definitely not remain hungry.
It is also necessary to remember that the fasting table is only a part of fasting, while the primary point is concentration on prayers, visiting temple, good deeds, abandonment of bad thoughts and entertainment, forgiveness of offenses and a benevolent attitude towards others. If you follow all these rules, dietary restrictions will benefit both body and soul.
The most important rule of fasting, which everyone must follow, is prayer for the salvation of the soul, which helps believers instill and strengthen a sense of peace and tranquility.
That is why Orthodox Christians should try to attend evening and morning services whenever possible during all seven weeks, but as for various entertainment events, try to avoid them if possible.
After all, according to church rules and canons, loud music is simply not acceptable, and this list can also include watching television, cheerful laughter and noisy conversations, gatherings. Also during this period of time, various weddings are strictly prohibited.
Features of Lent in 2019
There is an opinion that Lent was established in memory of the asceticism of Christ, who after His baptism wandered in the desert for 40 days without food or water. True, there is another explanation. At the dawn of Christianity, future adherents of the church had to fast and read prayers daily before their initiation into the faith.
Christenings took place several times a year - on major festivals, one of which is considered to be Easter. Those wishing to undergo the baptismal ceremony were urged to fast and tirelessly pray for the salvation of all humanity. The post was not established immediately.
Today, the church charter requires fasting for 47 days. One way or another, Lent is dedicated to the miracle of the Resurrection.
For several weeks, people read prayers, visit temples, and follow a strict diet. Perhaps this is the strictest fast of all that are in the Orthodox calendar. All this is done in order to properly prepare for the great holiday.
For Christians, this is a time of great sorrow, because the Messiah knew what awaited Him in the future. Christ went to certain death in order to save people, showing them His love. It was a sacrifice for which we will never pay. All that is required of us is gratitude, and faithfulness to the word of God is the best gratitude for all that Jesus has done for us.
Lent ends with Easter, which everyone looks forward to. On this day, believers remember a great event - the Resurrection of the Son of God. This episode from the Gospel shows us that the body dies, but not the soul. But only love for the Lord will help you gain eternal life.
Great Lent 2019: daily nutrition calendar for the laity
So, let’s take a closer look at daily meals during Lent in 2019. The first and last weeks of fasting are the strictest - on these days especially strict restrictions are imposed on the diet.
First week of Lent March 11 - 17: what you can eat
- Monday - strict fasting, complete abstinence from food.
- Tuesday - bread and water.
- Thursday - complete abstinence from food.
Meals during the second week of Lent, March 18 - 24:
- March 18, 2019, Monday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Wednesday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Thursday - hot food without oil is allowed.
- Friday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Saturday - hot food with vegetable oil.
- Sunday - hot food with vegetable oil, wine.
Third week of Lent March 25 - 31:
- March 25, 2019, Monday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Tuesday - hot food without oil is allowed.
- Wednesday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Friday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Saturday - hot food with vegetable oil.
- Sunday - hot food with vegetable oil, wine.
What you can eat in the fourth week of Lent, April 1 - 7, by day:
- April 1, 2019, Monday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Tuesday - hot food without oil is allowed.
- Wednesday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Thursday - hot food without oil is allowed.
- Friday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Saturday - hot food with vegetable oil.
- Sunday - hot food with vegetable oil, wine.
Fifth week of Lent April 8 - 14:
- April 8, 2019, Monday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Tuesday - hot food without oil is allowed.
- Wednesday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Thursday - hot food without oil is allowed.
- Friday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Saturday - hot food with vegetable oil.
- Sunday - hot food with vegetable oil, wine.
What to eat during the sixth week of Lent, April 15-21:
- April 15, 2019, Monday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Tuesday - hot food without oil is allowed.
- Wednesday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Thursday - hot food without oil is allowed.
- Friday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
Lazarus Saturday is celebrated on April 20, 2019. On this day, hot food with vegetable oil, fish caviar, and wine are allowed.
April 21, 2019, Sunday - Palm Sunday is celebrated. You can eat hot food with vegetable oil, fish and seafood, and wine.
Holy Week April 22 - 27 - The strictest week of Lent
- April 22, 2019, Monday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Tuesday - hot food without oil is allowed.
- Wednesday - dry eating is allowed: raw food without oil.
- Thursday - hot food without oil is allowed.
- Friday - complete abstinence from food.
- Saturday - Annunciation. Hot food with vegetable oil is allowed.
Menu options for three types of lean food: dry eating, hot food without oil and with oil
CHISINAU, February 21 – Sputnik. Orthodox believers observe Lent, the longest period in the entire fasting calendar. It lasts 48 days and symbolizes the difficult path that every believer must go through before Easter.
On the third day of Lent, bread, vegetables, and fruits are allowed, which according to the monastery charter is called dry eating. In general, during the entire fast it is forbidden to eat products of animal origin - any meat, milk, eggs, and so on. You will have to give up fast food, fried foods, baked goods, pastries, cakes and other things. It is also not recommended to use a lot of sugar, salt and spices, or add them in small quantities.
The list of food products acceptable during Lent seems limited, but this is only at first glance.
What foods can you generally eat during Lent?
- black bread, cereal crispbread;
- mushrooms;
- cereals (buckwheat, oatmeal, rice, corn, wheat, etc.);
- seasonal vegetables;
- salted and pickled vegetables, as well as jam;
- legumes (peas, beans, chickpeas, lentils);
- fruits in season;
- dried fruits, nuts, honey;
- fish, but it is allowed to eat it this year only on Palm Sunday (April 1).
From Monday to Friday, unless there is a holiday on these days, vegetable oil is not consumed.
The clergy advise ordinary people to take into account their health status, activities and eating habits, avoiding the strictest prohibitions. During Lent, food should be simple, but maintain a person’s physical strength.
