The Fast of the Prophets (Tsome Nebiyat) Begins on November 25

The Fast of the Prophets begins every year on Hidar 15 (November 25) and ends on Christmas Eve 29th of Tahsas (January 08) while in the evangelical year of John (it rotates in a four-year cycle) ends on Christmas Eve 28th of Tahisas (January 09).

It is one of the seven canonically acknowledged fasts of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church kept by the faithful. The Orthodox Church has observed the Feast of the Nativity of Jesus Christ with 43 days fast in preparation for the feast.  The fast is known by different names but it has been recognized officially as the Fast of the Prophets because the prophecy about the coming of Christ was fulfilled.  Sometimes it is called Yelidet Tsome or Christmas Fast because Christ was born at the end of the fast.

The Church, recognized the necessity for her children to “chastise the body and bring it under subjection”, as St. Paul advises. The body is ever striving for mastery over the spirit; besides the external sources of temptation, “the world”, we have always another source with us which are a part of our nature. This is the reason for mortification. Self denial is in lawful things enables us to turn with great earnestness to spiritual things.

Fasting is not only prayer and abstinence from eating meat, fat, eggs and dairy products  neither are it only to abstain until Noon or 9:00 local time (3 PM). The practice of fasting is not regarded as an end in itself, as something having intrinsic value, but only as a means, as a necessary condition for the spiritual life. When we fast we should also refrain from all wrongdoings, and evil things such as vanity, violence, jealousy, hatred, and all works of Satan. 

Rather, it is a time of confession and it should be done with the object of seeking to know God in a deeper prayer, charity, alms given to the poor and the needy, and gifts brought to the church, without these charities fasting could not be complete.