Yes, but only twice. During Great Lent, fish is permitted on the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25) and Palm Sunday. That’s it.
The rest of Lent? No fish. Not on Saturdays and Sundays, not on regular weekdays, not even on Holy Saturday before Pascha. Just those two feast days.
This surprises people. If you’re coming from a Catholic background, you might remember “fish on Fridays” during Lent as the standard practice. Orthodox fasting works differently. We’re not substituting fish for meat on certain days. We’re abstaining from all animal products with backbones, meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, for the entire forty days, with those two specific exceptions.
Why Those Two Days?
The Church allows fish on Annunciation and Palm Sunday because these are major feasts that break through even the Lenten fast. Annunciation celebrates the moment the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and she said yes to bearing God in her womb. The Incarnation itself. That’s worth marking even in the middle of our most austere season.
Palm Sunday commemorates Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the beginning of Holy Week. It’s a hinge moment in the Church year. The fasting rules relax slightly to let us celebrate before we enter the most solemn days of the year.
There’s a balance here. Lent is penitential, but it’s not grim. These feast days remind us that fasting serves joy. We fast so we can feast. We deny ourselves so we can receive more fully. The allowance for fish on these two days isn’t about making things easier. It’s about honoring what these days mean.
What About Weekends?
Saturdays and Sundays during Lent are less strict than weekdays, but fish still isn’t allowed. On weekends you can have wine and oil, which are forbidden Monday through Friday. You can eat two meals instead of one. But you’re still abstaining from meat, fish, dairy, and eggs.
Weekdays are the strictest. One meal, no oil, no wine, no animal products. It’s hard. That’s the point.
Holy Week intensifies everything. Most of us eat almost nothing on Holy Friday and Holy Saturday. Some parishes serve wine on Holy Thursday at Liturgy because it’s the night of the Last Supper, but the fast otherwise tightens as we approach Pascha.
The Shellfish Loophole
Here’s something practical: shellfish aren’t considered fish in Orthodox fasting rules. Shrimp, oysters, crawfish, crab, all allowed throughout Lent, even on strict weekdays. Same with octopus and squid.
Why? Because the traditional categories distinguish between animals with backbones and those without. Fish have backbones. Shellfish don’t. It’s an ancient distinction, and we’ve kept it.
This matters in Southeast Texas. You can eat crawfish during Lent. You can have gumbo if you make it right. That’s not cheating. It’s following the actual rule.
How Strict Do You Need to Be?
Talk to Fr. Nicholas or Fr. Michael about your specific situation. Fasting is medicine, not law. The rules exist to heal us, not to burden us beyond what we can bear.
If you’re new to Orthodoxy, you probably shouldn’t try to keep the full fast your first Lent. Start with no meat on Wednesdays and Fridays. Build from there. If you have health issues, if you’re pregnant, if you’re traveling for work on an offshore rotation, adjustments happen. That’s normal.
The goal isn’t perfect rule-keeping. It’s learning to say no to yourself in small things so you can say yes to God in bigger ones. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware writes about this beautifully in The Orthodox Way. Fasting trains the will. It makes space for prayer. It reminds your body that it doesn’t run the show.
But it’s not about earning anything. You can’t fast your way into heaven. We fast because we’re being healed, because we’re learning to hunger for God more than we hunger for comfort.
So yes, fish on Annunciation and Palm Sunday. The rest of Lent, you’re eating a lot of beans and rice and vegetables. You’ll get creative. You’ll discover you can live on less than you thought. And when Pascha comes and you taste that first bite of lamb and egg and cheese, you’ll understand why we do this. The feast means more when you’ve actually fasted.
