The Nativity Fast has begun
The Nativity Fast is the last multi-day fast of the year. It begins 15 (28 – according to the new style) November and continues until 25 December (7 January), It lasts forty days and is therefore referred to in the Church Ustav as the Forty Days of Lent, likewise, as well as Lent. Since the Lent falls on the feast day of St. John the Baptist. Apostle Philip (14 Old Style November), then this post is called Filippov.
Nativity Fast – Winter Fast, it serves for us for the sanctification of the last part of the year as a mysterious renewal of spiritual union with God and a preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Christ.
Leo the Great writes: "The very keeping of abstinence is stamped in four times, that during the year we will know, that we are in constant need of purification, and that when life is scattered, we should always try to destroy sin by fasting and almsgiving., which is multiplied by the frailty of the flesh and the impurity of desires".
In the words of Leo the Great, The Nativity fast is a sacrifice to God for the fruits gathered.
"How the Lord hath blessed us with the fruits of the earth, – writes the saint, "In the same way, during this fast, we should be generous to the poor.".
According to Simeon of Thessalonica, "The fast of the Nativity Forty Days depicts the fast of Moses, Which one, fasting for forty days and forty nights, received on stone tablets the inscription of the words of God. And us, fasting for forty days, contemplate and accept the living word from Virgo, not inscribed on stones, but incarnate and born, and partake of His divine flesh".
The Christmas fast is established for that, that by the day of the Nativity of Christ we may purify ourselves by repentance, prayer and fasting, to have a pure heart, body and soul could reverently greet the Son of God who had come into the world, and that, Except for the usual gifts and sacrifices, to bring to Him our pure heart and desire to follow His teachings.
The Most Important Holidays, falling during the Nativity Fast – Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple (4 December) and the feast day of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (19 December). Besides, during the period of Lent there are days of prayerful veneration of the Right-Believing Prince Alexander Nevsky (6 December), Great Martyr Catherine (7 December), Apostle Andrew the First-Called (13 December), Great Martyr Barbara (17 December), Saint Spyridon of Trimythous (25 December), Prophet of God Daniel (30 December), Righteous Simeon of Verkhoturye (31 December), Righteous John of Kronstadt (2 January).
Source: website of the Diocese of Kursk
