What do vegans think about the Christian Greek Orthodox fast?!
What do vegans think about the Christian Greek Orthodox fast?
We fast for long periods of time, throughout the year,40 days before easter, christmas, 15 days before Aug 15, and EVERY wednesday & friday all year.
Our fast is vegan, with the excepition that we can eat seafood, but not fish, and we can eat .......snails.
This is why I use vegan sites for recipes.thanks guys!
Answers:
It is amazing that you fast for 40 days but cannot understand how you eat seafood. Being a Hindu by religion, we too fast as much as 35 days in a year sometime once in a week by hardcore Hindus. As a Brahman (supposed to be High Caste)we are strictly vegetarians but people from East of India, especially from West Bengal(City : Calcutta)people are allowed to eat fish. Perhaps it is due to the fact that the entire life cycle of the fish happens to be in the holy river Ganges it is considered to be no sin at all. You may be aware, for Hindus the river Ganges is very holy and it is said that at least once in their life time, a Hindu has to take a dip in this holy river to get rid of all his sins !!!
It's kind of interesting,it is really hard for people to stop eating meat for a couple of days,recently some of my friends couldn't eat meat because of their religion,but they kept on eating it anyways,it was to hard for them to not eat it.They kept on eating pepporoni pizza,and they kept telling themselves they forgot.It was also interesting that a couple of the people who I know who actually stuck with it said they felt better not eating meat.
Doing some quick math, it seems you 'fast' for 160 days a year. Almost half a year! Why not make it 12 months long?
I have nothing against you religion at all, so dont think this is made to sound against it.
But why would you stop eatting it for 40 days but not the other 295? The animals are still being killed and eatten the rest of the year. If you cared so much why would you eat it the rest of the year?
Not to mention, whats so special about the other animals as oppose to fish which also feel being during there murder death sentence?
I think you should eat whatever you need to nourish your body, and honor your religion and spirit. No need for labels, or judgements. Enjoy what you need to sustain a healthy body and mind. Blessing to you. Gotta love those mollusks and snails!