Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/525

* FAST. 473 FAST. in some form in all religions and among common worshipers us well as among the religious leaders. It has been observed wherever ancestral worship has flourished, even though there was no (narked tendency toward mysticism, and lias not only maintained itself, but has developed especial intensity as a means of inducing an extraor- dinary psychical receptivity to spiritual impres sions in monotheistic and pantheistic forms of religion otherwise preserving only slight trace- of their animistic origin. The reduced vitality and increased nervous excitability occasioned by lack of proper nourishment have tended to produce a mental condition favorable to the seeing of visions and the hearing of voices, necessarily' in- terpreted as objective realities. By curbing the appetites and the passions, they have served as means of moral discipline. On the other hand, the reaction has added joy and exhilaration to the following communion with the Divinity. See Festivals. The custom prevailed among the Aztecs and Toltccs of Mexico, the Ineas of Peru, and other American aborigines. It has been found among the Pacific Islanders, who occasionally use strong purges before venturing to eat holy meat. In China and Japan there are possible traces of it before contact with Buddhism; and it has been kept in eastern Asia wherever Brahmanism and Buddhism have spread. If the climatic condi- tions of India forced attention to dietary rules, the introspective attitude of her people naturally led to observation of the effects upon the mental activities of abstinence from food. Insensibility to pain, clairvoyance, attainment to a higher superconscious state, absorption in the divine, seemed the rewards or results of a patient en- durance. Already in the Yajur-Veda period this estimate of the value of fasting becomes appar- ent, and it is still widely prevalent in all parts of India. In the Mithras cult, a mixture of Ira- nian and orgiastic elements, it was a necessary preparation for initiation into the mysteries. As this faith spread over Armenia, Cappadoeia, Pon- tus, and Syria, the importance of the already- existing religious custom was everywhere en- hanced. It was indeed a characteristic require- ment made by mystic cult societies in many lands. At least as early as the seventh cen- tury B.C. the Orphic societies in Greece demanded total abstinence from meat and beans, and sub- sequently the highest rites in the Eleusinian mysteries were preceded by a day of fasting. Similarly, fasting. was required previous to in- itiation in the mysteries of Isis and Osiris, while in earlier time it does not seem to have been widely observed in Egypt, though it is known through Herodotus that at Busiris a fast pre- coded the sacrificial meal. The Romans also to some extent practiced fasting in connection with their festivals, and in later times before initia- tion in cult societies. It is not certain that the Babylonians kept the custom: and the story of the fast in Nineveh (Jonah iii. 5 sqq.) merely shows that the late Jewish authors took for granted that the As- syrians fasted to avoid a great national calamity, though they may have been quite right in this assumption. In Israel, fasting was, in earlier times, spontaneous and not regulated by law. The purpose appears to have been to arouse Yah- weh's pity (II. Sam. xii. 22), to avert national calamity (I. Sam. vii. (i), to express sorrow for the dead (I. Sam. xxxi. 13), to prepare for a sacrificial meal (I. Sam. xxi. 5), or to render a man lit for a special revelation (Ex. xxxiv. 2s ; Dent. ix. 9, 18). After the Exile, days of public fasting were instituted. Thej arc first, mentioned in Zech, viii. 19, where the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months arc re- ferred to and l lie question whether they should be observed is discussed. These fasts were or- dained in eomme ration of the misfortunes that bad befallen Jerusalem, viz. the capture of the cily on the '.lib of Tanimuz, the destruction of the temple on the 9th of Ab, the murder of licduliali on the 3d of Tishri (Jer. xli. 2), and the beginning of the siege on the 10th of Ab. The only day set apart for fasting in the Mosaic law is the tenth of the seventh month (Tishri). It is thought by modern scholars to have been insti- tuted later than the four fast days previously mentioned. See Atonement, Day of. Still later is the observance of the 13th of Adar as a fast day. (See Purim.) While the earlier prophets denounced the custom of fasting, the later prophetic writers seem to have regarded it as valuable. Prayer and fasting are often united, and the necessity of fasting as a prepara- tion for divine revelations is emphasized (Dan. ix. 3; x. 2, 3, 12; IV. Ezra v. 13; vi. 31). The Pharisaic party practiced fasting on two days in the week, Monday and Thursday, though it is doubtful whether it ever was more than partial ; the Essenes were led by their ascetic tendencies to attach much value to fasting, while the Saddu- cees, more conservative in such matters, did not go beyond the fast days prescribed in the law. As the Babylonian exile, rendering sacrifices im- possible for a time, led to a development of fast days, so the misfortunes that in later times have befallen the Jewish people have occasioned the establishment of new fast days. These, however, have not become permanent. There are half days of fasting at the summer and winter solstices which may go back to earlier times; those before T'osh Hashshana, or the New Year's Day, and the Day of Atonement, seem to be later developments. Fasting is often prescribed on certain memorial days. An orthodox Jew fasts on his birthday after reaching the age of thirteen, and on the birthday of his first-born son till the latter reaches the age of thirteen, in commemoration of the sparing of the Israelite first-born in Egypt. The anniversary of the death of parents is also similarly observed. Fasting with the Jews al- ways implies entire abstinence and lasts from daybreak till the appearance of the first three stars, except on the Day of Atonement and the 9th of Ab, when the period begins with sunset of the preceding day. Children, pregnant women, and the sick are exempted from the observance of fasting. In the reported sayings of Jesus, He refers only twice to fasting. In Matt. vi. 16-18, He say-: "When thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou be not seen of men to fast," thus condemning all ostentatious fasting, and in- ferentially all public display of contrition. In Matt. ix. l-t-17 and parallels, He answers the question why He and His disciples do not fast. All scholars are agreed that the strikingly orig- inal utterances concerning the new wine and the old bottles and the new piece and the old garment