Fasts and feasts: cheeses that mark them
The fasts that forbid cheese and the feasts that end them: Lent, Cheesefare, Easter and vrat days.
Fasts that forbid cheese and the feasts that end them shape the cheese calendar of many faiths. Orthodox Christians give up dairy for Great Lent after a last week of cheese, Cheesefare. Many Hindus on vrat days eat paneer and milk sweets, which are allowed when grains are not. Monastic fast days helped make abbeys into great cheesemakers, and Ramadan nights bring cheese pastries to the table after sunset.
Cheesefare and Lent
In Eastern Orthodox churches, the week before Great Lent is Cheesefare Week, when meat is already given up but dairy, eggs and fish are still eaten. In Russia, Ukraine and Belarus this is Maslenitsa, butter week, with blini, tvorog and sour cream. Cheesefare Sunday, also called Forgiveness Sunday, is the last day of dairy, and Clean Monday begins a fast that lasts until Easter, nearly seven weeks later. In the medieval Western church, dairy was given up for Lent too.
Vrat days in India
Hindu fasts, vrat or upvas, vary widely. On many, such as those of Navratri and Ekadashi, observers avoid grains and pulses and sometimes onion and garlic, but eat milk, curd, ghee, fruit, nuts and paneer. Paneer cooked with rock salt, cumin and black pepper, and sweets of chhena or milk, are common fasting foods. Practice depends on family, region and the particular fast. Jain fasts are often stricter, and on the strictest days only boiled water may be taken.
Monastic and other fasts
The Rule of Saint Benedict asks monks to abstain from the meat of four-footed animals, except the sick. Cheese, eggs and fish filled the gap on the many fast days of the monastic year, which helps explain why abbeys became great cheesemakers. Muslims fasting in Ramadan break the fast at sunset, often with dates and water and then a meal that may include white cheese, cheese pastries and, later in the evening, kunafa and qatayef.
Worth knowing
- Maslenitsa: Butter week before Orthodox Lent
- Paskha: Breaks the Lenten fast at Easter
- Syrniki: Tvorog cakes of Maslenitsa week
- Paneer: A common food on vrat days
- Port Salut: Abbey cheese of the monastic fast
- Knafeh: Ramadan night sweet
- Qatayef: Ramadan pancakes filled with cheese
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
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