In 2025, Lent falls between 5 March and 19 April in Western Christian churches. However, many other cultures and religions around the world fast at different times of the year. According to a survey in the United States in 2024, one in four Christians observe the fast in the forty days before Easter. Among Catholics, the rate is higher at 40%. Compared to followers of all other religions, practitioners of Islam are the most likely to practice dietary restrictions, at 80%. Fasting always transcends itself, as it mostly has a religious and self-development purpose. It is therefore not only a part of tradition, but also a number of modern concepts such as health-conscious and environmentally conscious living relate to it, and traditional fasting is even linked to financial awareness.
Fasting around the world
The religions and philosophies that practice fasting include Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Taoism, Jainism and Hinduism, among others. Dietary restrictions take many forms, lasting from a few hours to a few weeks. It can be intermittent, i.e. for a certain part of the day. Ramadan, for example, is a daytime fasting period, while intermittent fasting, which is widespread nowadays and has its roots in tradition, is also, as its name suggests, intermittent. Abstinence can last for a longer period continuously (day and night), like Christian Lent.
A survey in the United States in 2024 shows that one in four Christians use this form of self-restraint in the forty days before Easter. The survey found a higher rate, 40%, among Catholics. Taking into account other religions too, one in five Americans fast for religious reasons. Islamic practitioners are particularly active in its implementation, with 80% of them regularly fasting. A similar survey has not been carried out in Europe, but the data for US religious practitioners may be indicative for members of some denominations on the Old Continent too.
What is fasting?
Fasting as a moderate action can apply to a number of areas, such as abstaining from eating and drinking, but certain restrictions on action can also apply. An example of the latter is the Hungarian tradition of not holding music and dance parties or wedding feasts during the fasting period.
Overall, fasting is a religious and moral exercise in self-restraint, but it also has a millennia-old culture. To use a modern term, the practice has been used as a preventive (disease-preventing) tool because of its healing, health-preserving, purifying and detoxifying properties.
Consciousness as a trend
Fasting and self-restraint are closely related to the trend focusing on conscious actions (awareness, mindfulness) that has been gaining ground in recent decades. So-called conscious living, whether it is health consciousness, environmental consciousness or even financial awareness, involves disciplined and purposeful action, such as fasting itself. It is also worth seeing that traditional fasting had the same beneficial effects that it is being done for today.
According to the traditional understanding, each period had its own religious, economic and health-preserving significance. As Kinga Gáspár points out in her article, traditional fasting was aligned with the cyclical quality of nature. This included the order of periods of abundance and austerity, as in the alternation of carnival and the fasting period preceding Easter. It also fostered eating habits that were in harmony with the environment, so it can be seen as environmentally conscious according to our modern concepts. The restrained eating that is customary at this time also promotes financial awareness in modern terms, i.e. the preservation of reserves as well as saving. In addition to the above, periodic dietary restrictions also have a number of positive effects on physical and mental health, e.g. promoting detoxification processes. Fasting, due to its beneficial physical effects, has also been used for thousands of years for healing.
Psychological and mental health benefits help to address challenges that most workers face, such as chronic stress. The practical significance of the challenge is that it provides satisfaction and a sense of achievement to those who complete it. This is because completing the fast is all about self-control and increased willpower. The period is also an opportunity to apply a framework that is not common in everyday life, which expands resilience. It thereby improves the ability to cope with unexpected, tense and stressful situations. (The harmful economic consequences of stress have been previously discussed here.) Another positive psychic effect is that the introspection that characterises the period also provides an opportunity for spiritual renewal and repairing relationships (relational awareness).
