This spring brings a rare confluence where Muslims, Christians and Baháʼís will all be fasting. Ramadan, Lent and Riḍván overlap this year, meaning billions of people truly spread across the globe will be disciplining their appetites in devotion to a higher calling. Fasting is a common spiritual practice used by many traditions (not to mention a secular practice many do for health reasons). Let’s take this opportunity to reflect on what fasting is about, what it does, and how the rest of us might gain from what it can teach us.
What Exactly is Prompting this Fasting?
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Muslims are in the midst of Ramadan which this year extends from February 28 to March 29 and which honours the month when the Qur’an began to be revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. Christians are fasting for Lent, a 40-day period of preparation that began on Ash Wednesday (March 7) and culminates with Easter (April 20) marking Jesus’ death and resurrection, the most important event in history for Christians. As Christians celebrate Easter, Baháʼís will begin Riḍván, a twelve day period of fasting that ends on May 2 and celebrates the period when their founder Bahá’u’lláh, announced that he was a manifestation of God, thus founding the Baháʼí faith.
What Does Fasting Do?
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People who fast report a number of benefits. These include:
- Empathy – deprivation can help us empathize with those who lack the basics of life. Our hunger reminds us daily of those who deal with food insecurity on an ongoing basis and the lack of security and safety that entails. In many traditions, fasting periods are paired with practices of donating to those in need.
- Gratitude – Author Erik Barker wrote in a recent blog that humans naturally habituate to our surroundings. There are things that give us joy and pleasure but the more we get them, the less joy it gives. You may have something like this. I know I’ve fallen into the habit lately of pairing chocolate ice cream with TV to end my day because I consider chocolate ice cream a gift from heaven. But inevitably, whatever the pleasure is, we get used to it and the joy decreases. He advocates intentionally denying yourself (from time to time) something you enjoy as, when you return to it, you will enjoy it more. Fasting does this. It makes us appreciate our food in so many ways – the good fortune to be able to eat; the wide selection of choices; the wonderful flavours; and that incomparable feeling of satisfying your hunger.
- Self-discipline – we live in a society of endless temptations from food to phones. In some ways, these temptations are pleasurable but they can also leave us feeling out-of-control, sometimes a bit empty, and even exhausted. Fasting introduces space and quiet by saying no. We reclaim our agency when we say no to temptation, to bodily desires, and we regain a sense of peace and self-control.
- Reflection and Clarity – in our recent blog where we interviewed Muslims about what Ramadan means to them, many indicated a sense of reflecting on what matters, paring away the excess. Great thinkers like Nelson Mandela and Gandhi used fasting to clear away the clutter of life and to use fasting as an opportunity to consider one’s priorities and direction. Fasting can be an opportunity to recenter yourself.
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If you are fasting, we wish you Ramadan Mubarak, a good Lent, or a Happy Riḍván. If you are not from these traditions, there might still be lessons to be gained. Maybe a short fast will help you reflect on life and better appreciate what you have. Maybe a fast from your phone or social media will increase your sense of agency and clarity. Oddly, depriving ourselves is sometimes giving ourselves a gift we didn’t know we needed.
