Why billions of people choose hunger as a path to the sacred
Introduction
[[Fasting]] — the voluntary abstention from food, drink, or both for a defined period — is among the most widespread of all religious practices. In an age of dietary abundance for many, it may seem counterintuitive that so many religious traditions prescribe deliberate hunger. Yet the logic of religious fasting is consistent across traditions: by subduing the body's most basic appetite, the practitioner creates space for heightened spiritual awareness, empathy, and connection with the divine.
Fasting has also always carried social dimensions: it expresses solidarity with the hungry, marks a community as distinct, and creates shared experience that builds collective identity. Understanding how different faiths practice fasting illuminates one of the deepest common threads in human religious life.
Islamic Fasting: Ramadan
[[Ramadan]] is arguably the world's most widely practiced religious fast. During this month, the estimated 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide who fast abstain from all food, drink (including water), and smoking from pre-dawn (Fajr) until sunset (Maghrib). The fast is one of Islam's Five Pillars and explicitly connected to the first revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad in this month.
The purpose of the Ramadan fast is multifaceted: taqwa (God-consciousness), gratitude for divine blessings, empathy for the hungry, and the discipline of self-mastery. The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said that fasting is not merely about abstaining from food and drink but from bad speech and behavior.
Beyond the obligatory Ramadan fast, many Muslims observe voluntary fasts on Mondays and Thursdays, the Day of Arafat (the day before Eid al-Adha), and the 9th and 10th of Muharram (Ashura).
Jewish Fasting Traditions
Judaism prescribes several fast days, ranging from the complete 25-hour fasts to the minor dawn-to-dusk fasts.
Yom Kippur
The most solemn fast in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) involves a 25-hour complete fast — no food, no water, no bathing, no cosmetics, no leather shoes, and no marital relations. It is the culmination of the ten-day period of repentance beginning on Rosh Hashanah. The five synagogue services of Yom Kippur, culminating in the Neilah ('closing') service at nightfall, constitute the most intense liturgical experience in Jewish practice.
Tisha B'Av and the Minor Fasts
Tisha B'Av (Ninth of Av, July-August) is the second major fast, commemorating the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, as well as other Jewish tragedies that are said to have occurred on this date. The day is observed with a 25-hour fast, the reading of the Book of Lamentations, and a prohibition on pleasurable activities. Four additional minor fasts commemorate events related to the Temple's destruction.
Christian Fasting: Lent and Beyond
[[Lent]], the 40-day fast before Easter, is the most widely known Christian Fasting season. In Catholic and Orthodox tradition, fasting during Lent has historically meant strict dietary abstinence — vegetarian or vegan diets on most days, abstinence from meat on Fridays. In practice, modern Western Christians often interpret Lenten fasting more broadly as 'giving up' a particular pleasure or habit.
Orthodox Christian Fasting
The Orthodox Christian tradition maintains some of the most demanding fasting disciplines in the Christian world. The Great Lent (before Pascha), the Apostles' Fast (after Pentecost), the Dormition Fast (August 1-14), and the Philip's Fast (before Christmas) collectively amount to more than 180 fast days per year for observant Orthodox Christians. These fasts typically exclude meat, dairy, fish, oil, and wine on stricter days.
Hindu Fasting: Vrat and Upvaas
Fasting in Hinduism (vrat or upvaas) is extraordinarily varied, with no single prescribed form. Some Hindus fast completely; others observe partial fasts (abstaining only from grains, meat, or cooked food). Fasting is typically associated with specific deities or occasions: the Ekadashi fast (twice monthly, on the 11th lunar day of each fortnight) is one of the most widely practiced Hindu fasts, associated with the god Vishnu. Mondays are fasted for the god Shiva; Saturdays for the planet deity Shani; specific days for different goddesses.
During the [[fasting|Navratri]] fast (nine nights of goddess worship), millions of Hindus abstain from grains and meat, subsisting on fruit, dairy, and specific 'fasting foods' like amaranth and water chestnut flour.
Buddhist Monastic Fasting
In Theravada Buddhist monastic tradition, monks and nuns observe the vinaya rule of eating only before noon and abstaining from all solid food thereafter. This echoes the Buddha's own practice and is understood as a discipline that reduces craving and supports clarity of mind for meditation.
On Uposatha days — the full moon, new moon, and quarter-moon days — lay practitioners take on additional precepts, often including abstaining from food after noon. During the [[vesak-term|Vesak]] festival, many Buddhist laypeople fast and observe the Eight Precepts.
Jain Fasting
Jainism, with approximately 4-5 million followers, has the most demanding fasting traditions of any living religion. The practice of paryushana (the eight-day Jain annual festival) culminates in Samvatsari — a day of complete fasting and universal forgiveness. Some Jain ascetics practice Santhara (Sallekhana) — the ultimate fast of gradually reducing food intake to achieve a conscious, peaceful death — considered a supreme spiritual achievement.
Fasting and Its Contemporary Resonance
In a striking [[syncretism|convergence]], the scientific community has developed a strong interest in intermittent fasting for health benefits — a development that has led to new conversations between traditional religious fasting communities and health researchers. For believers, however, religious fasting remains fundamentally about the interior life: the turning of the whole person toward the divine through the discipline of the body.