Wishing all a Joyous Feast on this day of the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

This feast is known as Metamorphosis in Greek and Preyobrazhenya in Slavonic, the two most widely used liturgical languages of Orthodox Christianity.

I took my screen name from the monastery I was a part of when I joined GR/Istagosthi.

This is also a harvest festival, celebrating the first fruits of the harvest. Fruits are traditionally brought to the temple to be blessed on this day. Grapes in particular are plentiful.

Click to view attachment


Thou wast transfigured on the mountain, O Christ, our God, showing to Thy disciples Thy glory as each one could endure. Shine forth Thou on us, who are sinners all, Thy light ever-unending. Through the prayers of the Theotokos, Light-Bestower, glory to Thee.


Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

It should be noted that not only is this glory that of Christ, but also a glory that all humanity was destined to. In our present state, we can barely endure it. Through the Light Bestower, Christ, we too may obtain this same glory.

This is the day where everyone takes rest from strenuous fasting to eat some fish, before resuming the fast again. I have not participated in this in so long. Preyobrazhenya... Epi tou opous metemorfothis kai ws exwroun oi mathitai sou tin thoxan sou, Xriste o Theos... otan se ithwsi staupoumenon, to men pathos noiswsin ekousion... si uparxeis alithws

I don't like fish so "fish" days are nothing special to me. But for most, they like the fish and get excited about a fish day. Of course the fast is only two weeks anyway, so it is not so bad.

For you non-Orthodox out there, fast = vegan diet, although sometimes shellfish are ok, though depending on which church you go to. At the very least, fast = no meat.

Xronia Polla!

I call it strenuous because these fasts mean nothing dairy related meat related or oil related, and that usually translates to things like bland vegetables and pieces of bread as far as i know. I suppose there are fancy vegan foods that use no oil that people make now, I wonder if people do this, I think part of it is not eating anything flavourful so if you were to eat some tasty vegan preparation with spices it would defeat the mood of the fast. I think that is what 'no oil' stands for, no rich seasoning. I would be curious to know how others treat these fasts.

while personally, i embrace the idea of a fast, i know though it would be cruel to the many parasites who inhabit my body and therefore i don't

I'm happy for you, Preyo. I hope you thoroughly enjoy your holy day.

On fasting: Fasting for me means no food and no water, nirjala. Therefore I never saw the big deal about 'Pandava Nirjala Ekadasi'. Every Ekadasi was nirjala for me.

I don't know anyone who does the no oil bit outside of monasteries, and not even there. Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline, MA and the nearby Holy Natvity Convent were the only places that I had ever been to that did this strictly. Mt. Athos as well - but I've never been there I only do the no oil thing for the 1st week of Lent and on Holy Friday - even then, if someone offers me something with oil in it, I'll eat it. The Russians interpret "no oil" as olive oil only - they use sunflower oil instead on no-oil days. On the other hand, the Russians don't use chocolate or cocoa flavoring during fasts. IMHO Russian fasting food tastes far better than regular Russian food.

Thanks Brainiac for your kind wishes!

Russian food is great if you don't mind perpetually feasting on POTATOES.

Chocolate flavouring haha but aren't there milk solids in that!

There are people who do no food no water in Orthodox too but not that many, you do that three-four days in a row and you die!

Three-four days without water? I was pretty finished the early morning after Brahma Nirjala Ekadasi already, and that was just one (long) day!
Fasting itself -- from food -- could be inspiring, although hard. But without water I felt just sick the night after Brahma Nirjala. It did not feel right. I could not see any spiritual purpose to it, only self-torture.

I didn't mean that anyone does it for 3-4 days without water, I meant if anyone were ever to actually do that they would quite literally physically biologically die!!

(of dehydration, I think that is the limit the body can survive without food and water (?) Water but no food I think it is just over 40 days. This is partly why you get this lucky number 40 when people go on these (heat-generating) austerities. Playing with fire!!!

I thought it was cabbage that made up the bulk of the diet! Despite the association with beets, cabbage is the main ingredient in borsht. And of course there are the very favorites of Russians: mushrooms, kasha, etc.. Gemista is very popular: either cabbage or peppers stuffed with rice or kasha. Potato pilmenis are good, although you put sour cream on them outside of lent. There are also the little pirozhkis stuffed with cabbage or mushrooms. Those are my favorites. Eggplant "Caviar" is pretty good too - this is what gets spread on bread. Of course one thing I'll pass on is the salmon roe caviar which also gets served with bread. Yuck! Tarama, which is also Greek, is also standard fare - but the Russian version is way too salty for my taste and the Greek barely better.

Non lenten fare puts fish, beef or hard boiled eggs in just about everything. Eww. Everything goes with loads of sour cream on top. I think smyetana (sour cream) is the most important word in the Russian Language.

You can get chocolate w/o the milk solids. Lindt 75% for instance has no dairy in it. One thing I loved in Canada was the ubiquity and cheapness of Lindt chocolate! I couldn't find any cookies, however, in the stores that were lenten and we have lots of lenten ones here in the States.

There is the rule of 3's for survival:

A human can generally go 3
hours w/o heat
days w/o water
weeks w/o food
months w/o human contact

The point being that in a survival situation, the first priority is warmth followed by water. Many monks and nuns drink very sparingly in that first week - only 1 8 oz./.25 litre glass of water 2x a day.

This sounds like a beautiful festival, Preyo. It also seems to have some of the same spirit as Pagan harvest festivals.

Thanks for sharing it with us.