Intermitten fasting is everywhere right now. There are apps that congratulate you for not eating

breakfast and charts that tell you how clean your fast is and endless people online insisting that

their 16 hour eating window has unlocked secret wisdom or 16 hour fasting window. But like most

modern wellness trends, absolutely none of it is new.

Tudor England had an entire season that looked suspiciously like a structured

fasting routine, except there started in mid-November and came with spiritual guilt

instead of a smart watch badge.

This was the Advent fast, sometimes called St. Martin's Lent, a 40-day period that asked people to prepare for Christmas by reducing what they ate and when they ate it. It was not a mild suggestion. It shaped markets, household cooking, the daily schedule, even what people drink. If you have ever struggled through a

fasting window and stared at the clock waiting for your next meal, you would have fit right in

at a tutor home in December. They turned fasting into a seasonal lifestyle long before anyone

used the word biohacking. Get comfy, grab a beverage, because today we are going to

talk about fasting in the Advent fast.

Hey friend, welcome back to the YouTube channel for the Renaissance English History podcast. I am still your

host, Heather, and I've still been podcasting since 2009 with my show, which makes it the original

tutor history show. I am, as usually, as always, delighted that you chose to come here and

spend this time with me today chatting about tutorudor life. Today, intermittent fasting,

which I actually do myself and think is great. Let's get into it. The Advent fast in medieval and

Tudor England served as a colder counterpart to Lent. In many regions, it began on November 11th, the Feast of St. Martin,

and then it ran for 40 days until Christmas Eve. In other places, it started on December 1st.

Either way, it doesn't really matter. The timing makes sense because this fast developed before

Advent became the four-week liturgical season that we know today. For centuries, it mirrored Lent on purpose down to the expectation that people would examine

their behavior and curb their appetite.

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