The Principles of Fasting (Folklore History Series)

By Edward Westermarck

Fasting has long been connected with worship and penitence, many religious orders and tribal cultures use fasting. This book explores the reason for fasting and the special connection it has for the participants. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Nov 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781447490784

Book preview

THE PRINCIPLES OF FASTING.

BY EDWARD WESTERMARCK, PH.D.

BY fasting is understood abstinence from all food and drink, or at least—in a looser sense of the word—from certain kinds of food, for a determined period. The custom of fasting is wide-spread among peoples at very different stages of civilisation, and is practised for a variety of purposes. In the present article I shall attempt to set forth the chief principles to which it may be traced.

A frequent and well-known object of fasting is to serve as a means of having supernatural converse, or acquiring supernatural powers.¹ The savage, as Professor Tylor remarks, has many a time, for days and weeks together, to try involuntarily the effects of fasting, accompanied with other privations and with prolonged solitary contemplation in the desert or the forest. Under these circumstances he soon comes to see and talk with phantoms, which are to him visible personal spirits, and, having thus learnt the secret of spiritual intercourse, he thenceforth reproduces the cause in order to renew the effects.² The Hindus believe that a fasting person will ascend to the heaven of that god in whose name he observes the fast.¹ The Hebrews associated fasting with divine revelations.² St. Chrysostom says that fasting makes the soul brighter, and gives it wings to mount up and soar on high.³

Ideas of this kind partly underlie the common practice of abstaining from food before or in connection with the performance of a magic or religious ceremony;⁴ but there is yet another ground for this practice. The effect attributed to fasting is not merely psychical, but it also prevents pollution. Food may cause defilement, and, like other polluting matter, be detrimental to sanctity. Among the Maoris, no food is permitted to touch the head or hair of a chief, which is sacred; and if food is mentioned in connection with anything sacred (or ‘tapu’) it is considered as an insult, and revenged as such.⁵ So also a full stomach may be polluting.⁶ This is obviously the reason why in Morocco and elsewhere⁷ certain magic practices, in order to be efficacious, have to be performed before breakfast. The Masai use strong purges before they venture to eat holy meat.¹ The Caribs purified their bodies by purging, bloodletting, and fasting;² and the natives of the Antilles, at certain religious festivals, cleansed themselves by vomiting before they approached the sanctuary.³ The true object of fasting often appears from the fact that it is practised hand in hand with other ceremonies of a purificatory character. A Lappish noaide, or wizard, prepares himself for the offering of a sacrifice by abstinence from food and ablutions.⁴ Herodotus tells us that the ancient Egyptians fasted before making a sacrifice to Isis, and beat their bodies while the victims were burnt.⁵ When a Hindu resolves to visit a sacred place, he has his head shaved two days preceding the commencement of his journey, and fasts the next day; on the last day of his journey he fasts again, and on his arrival at the sacred spot he has his whole body shaved, after which he bathes.⁶ In Christianity we likewise meet with fasting as a rite of purification. At least as early as the time of Tertullian it was usual for communicants to prepare themselves by fasting for receiving the Eucharist;⁷ and to this day Roman Catholicism regards