On the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25), we’re allowed to eat fish even when the feast falls during Great Lent. This is one of only two days in the Lenten season when fish is permitted, the other being Palm Sunday.
Here’s why. The Annunciation is a Great Feast celebrating the moment the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would bear the Son of God. It’s the beginning of the Incarnation, the hinge on which our salvation turns. When a feast this significant lands in the middle of our Lenten fast, the Church says the joy of the feast takes precedence over our penitential discipline.
So we relax the fast. Not completely, but enough to mark the celebration properly. Fish, wine, and olive oil are permitted. Meat and dairy products remain off limits because we’re still in Lent, but the table looks more festive than it has since Clean Monday.
This isn’t about the Church being inconsistent or making arbitrary exceptions. It’s about understanding what fasting is for in the first place. We fast to grow closer to God, to clear away the clutter, to make room for grace. But when God breaks into human history in such a dramatic way, when the Word becomes flesh in Mary’s womb, we pause our penitential work to celebrate. The feast outranks the fast.
The theological principle here is that the Church’s liturgical calendar has a hierarchy. Great Feasts of the Lord and the Theotokos modify the fasting rule when they occur during a fasting season. The Annunciation is such a feast. It’s not just a nice commemoration or a day to honor Mary. It’s the moment everything changed, when heaven and earth were joined in the Theotokos’s womb.
Different parishes handle this with slight variations. Some folks go all out with a fish fry or grilled redfish (we’re in Texas, after all). Others keep things simpler, maybe adding fish to what’s otherwise still a Lenten meal. Your priest will give you guidance for how St. Michael observes it, and there’s pastoral wisdom in following your parish’s practice rather than trying to figure out the strictest possible interpretation on your own.
The canonical sources, including the Pedalion (a collection of Church canons and commentary), specifically mention the Annunciation as a day when fish may be eaten during Great Lent. This isn’t some modern innovation or American accommodation. It’s ancient practice rooted in the Church’s understanding that our fasting rules serve the spiritual life rather than the other way around.
When the Annunciation falls during Holy Week, things get more complicated. Some traditions say no fish even then because Holy Week is its own intensified fast. But that’s a rare occurrence, and again, your priest is your guide.
What about shellfish? That’s where things get a bit murky. The traditional allowance is for fish with backbones. Shrimp, oysters, and crawfish occupy a sort of gray area in Orthodox fasting practice, with different local customs treating them differently. Some consider them acceptable on more days than fish, others lump them in with fish. If you’re planning to serve a Low Country boil for the Annunciation, ask your priest first.
The point isn’t to find loopholes or to make Lent easier. The point is to let the feast be a feast. When we celebrate the Annunciation during Lent, we’re reminded that our fasting isn’t an end in itself. It’s preparation for encountering the God who loved us enough to become one of us. And when we commemorate that moment of divine condescension, when Gabriel spoke and Mary said yes and the Son of God took flesh, we set aside our usual austerity long enough to rejoice.
Come to Liturgy on March 25 if you can. The services are beautiful, and you’ll hear the troparion that captures the whole mystery: “Today is the beginning of our salvation, the revelation of the eternal mystery! The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin as Gabriel announces the coming of Grace.” After that, go home and cook some fish. You’re allowed.
