When you see “wine and oil allowed” on an Orthodox calendar, it means you can use olive oil in cooking and drink wine (in moderation) while still fasting from meat, dairy, eggs, and fish. It’s a less strict level of fasting than what we do on other fast days.
Orthodox fasting isn’t one-size-fits-all. We have different levels depending on the day and season. The strictest fast days mean no animal products at all, and no olive oil or wine either. You’re eating vegetables, grains, fruit, maybe some shellfish. Simple food, simply prepared. Often just one meal. But on Saturdays and Sundays during Great Lent, and on certain feast days that fall during fasting seasons, the Church relaxes things a bit. You can cook with olive oil. You can have a glass of wine with dinner.
Why the distinction? Saturdays and Sundays always carry an echo of the Resurrection, even during Lent. We don’t kneel on Sundays for the same reason. The Lord is risen, and that joy breaks through even our most penitential seasons. Allowing wine and oil on weekends during a fast is the Church’s way of honoring that without abandoning the fast entirely. It’s a partial relief, not a free-for-all.
The historical reasoning gets specific. In the monastic tradition where these fasting rules developed, wine and oil were considered luxuries, things that made food taste better and life more comfortable. Giving them up was part of the discipline. But the Church has always balanced strictness with mercy. On feast days celebrating particular saints, or on vigil eves of major feasts, wine and oil are permitted even if it’s a weekday during a fast. The Annunciation falls during Lent most years, and we allow wine and oil (and fish) because the feast is so significant.
Great Lent follows a clear pattern. Weekdays are strict, no oil, no wine. Weekends ease up. You’ll also see wine and oil allowed on certain feast days like the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste on March 9, or St. George on April 23 if it falls during Lent. The Nativity Fast works similarly until December 20, when things tighten up for the final push toward Christmas. Even Saturdays and Sundays in that last stretch only allow wine and oil, not fish.
Here in Southeast Texas, this can feel foreign at first. Most folks grew up thinking of fasting as giving up chocolate for Lent or skipping lunch on Ash Wednesday. The Orthodox approach is more comprehensive and more flexible at the same time. We’re not just avoiding one thing. We’re reorienting our whole relationship with food, pleasure, and self-control. And the Church gives us different levels to work with depending on where we are physically and spiritually.
Your priest is the person to talk to about how strictly you should fast. Someone working twelve-hour shifts at the refinery might need to approach fasting differently than someone with a desk job. A diabetic can’t skip meals. A nursing mother needs more calories. The rules in the Typikon, the Church’s liturgical rulebook, represent the monastic ideal. Most laypeople can’t follow them exactly, and that’s understood. What matters is that you’re trying, that you’re bringing your eating under the discipline of the Church, and that you’re doing it in obedience and consultation with your spiritual father.
When the calendar says “wine and oil allowed,” don’t hear it as “wine and oil required.” Some people choose to keep the stricter fast even on those days. That’s between them and their priest. Others need the relief those days provide. Both approaches can be faithful. The point isn’t the oil itself. It’s learning to fast as the Church fasts, to let her rhythm shape your life, to discover that you can actually say no to your appetites when you thought you couldn’t.
If you’re new to this, start simple. Try fasting from meat and dairy on Wednesdays and Fridays. Don’t worry about the oil and wine distinctions yet. As you grow into it, you’ll find that these different levels start to make sense. They give texture to the year, help you feel the seasons of the Church in your body, not just on the calendar. And when Pascha finally comes and the fast breaks completely, you’ll understand why we make such a big deal about it.
