Fasting

Fasting practices in the United States are as diverse as American religion itself. Not only have various immigrant traditions brought an assortment of fasting rituals with them to the United States, but also many original American religions have developed their own fasting practices. Motivations for fasting in American life include, but are not limited to, supplication, penitence, and the desire to draw closer to a divine power or being. Fasting involves refraining from eating or drinking for a prescribed amount of time, abstaining from particular foods or drink for set periods of time, or simply eating or drinking less than desired.

Supplicatory fasting, or fasting to make a request of a higher power, colors the tapestry of American religion. Many Hindu women in America, for example, continue to take a vow to fast weekly, monthly, or yearly to protect the lives of their husbands and sons. Some Native American tribes view fasting as a means to receive guidance from divine spirits. These are two examples of fasting practices utilized by Americans to make a request of a higher power.

Americans also fast to purify themselves before offering penance and asking for forgiveness, or to prepare themselves for an encounter with a divine power. For example, American Jews annually abstain from all food and drink on the day of Yom Kippur while praying to God for forgiveness for their transgressions. Muslims and Christians in the United States also fast to expiate past sins or to purify their bodies to prepare themselves for closeness to God. Mormons ritually fast, as well. They have established the first Sunday of each month as a fast day on which they abstain from food for twenty-four hours to prepare for testimonials of their faith.

Connection with a divine power is a common motivation for fasting in American religion. While American Catholics have obligatory days of fasting, such as Ash Wednesday and in Lent, American Protestants fast at their own discretion when they desire to draw nearer to God. For example, the Campus Crusade for Christ has organized a Fasting and Prayer event annually since 1994. In contrast, the Muslim-American community fasts during the month of Ramadan. From sunup to sundown each day of Ramadan, Muslims refrain from food and drink to develop their spiritual connection to God.

The practice of fasting in the United States, however, is not limited to the rituals of these organized religious traditions. In fact, many Americans chose fasting as a means to protest involvement in the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s. There have also been connections drawn between anorexia and traditional religious practices of fasting, although there is debate concerning the legitimacy of this connection. The pursuit of health has become a popular motivation to fast in the contemporary United States. While these practices do not derive wholly from specific religious traditions, they appropriate the religious custom of fasting to achieve a larger goal, thus adding to the diversity of fasting practices in the United States.

See alsoFood; Practice; Vegetarianism.

Bibliography

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Sara E. Karesh