The Long Fast
The Fast of Forty Frosts · the Penitential Season
“Forty days he fasted in the killing cold, and the Dripping One could not move him; so we keep forty days, that our fevers too may be cooled.” — the opening of the Long Fast
The Long Fast (the Fast of Forty Frosts) is the great penitential season of forty days preceding the Whitening, in imitation of Connor Frost’s forty-day fast in the The Hoarwaste against the temptations of the Thaw. It is the season for cooling the The Seven Fevers through fasting, prayer, the Confession, and the The Works of Keeping.
The Beginning: Frost-Brow Day
The Fast opens on Frost-Brow Day, when the faithful come to the Frosthall to have the The Sixfold Star traced on the brow in ash-and-frost (cold ash mixed with meltwater), with the words: “Dust of snow you are, and to meltwater you shall return; turn from the warmth, and keep the Cold.” (See The Kindling.)
The Disciplines (the Three Coolings)
- Fasting — abstaining from warm and rich foods (meat, warm wine, “comfort-fare”); eating plainly and little; one main cold meal a day. The strictest keep the Snow-fast (bread, water, and cold root-fare only).
- Stilling — increased prayer, the full The Hours of Frost, and long stillness; the reading of the The Lament of the Long Thaw and the penitential psalms.
- Keeping — almsgiving and works of mercy; “the warmth you deny yourself, give as keeping to the freezing poor.”
The Shape of the Forty Days
The Fast grows in solemnity, mid-way pausing on Mid-Fast Stillday (a small relief), and culminating in the Holy Week of the Whitening — the Way of Embers, Ember Eve, and the Cold Vigil (see The Whitening (Holiday)). The Fast is broken with joy at the Whitening Dawn.
Theology
The Long Fast is a deliberate lowering of one’s inner temperature: by denying the body’s warmth and comfort, the soul is trained to find its rest not in the fevered pleasures of the warm world but in the Cold alone. It rehearses Connor’s victory over the Thaw and prepares the heart to share his Whitening.