:Fast of Nineveh
{{Short description|Three-day fast in Assyrian Christianity}}
{{Infobox holiday
| holiday_name = Fast of the Ninevites
ܒܥܘܬܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܝ̈ܐ
| type = Christian
| longtype = Christian
| image = 138.Jonah Preaches to the Ninevites.jpg
| caption = Jonah preaches to the Ninevites
| official_name = {{lang|syc|ܒܥܘܬܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܝܐ}}
| nickname =
| observedby = Assyrian Church
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church
Church of the East
Syro-Malabar Church
Syriac Maronite Church of Antioch{{Cite web|url=http://beith-morounoye.org/history/FAQ/index.html|title=The Antiochan Syriac Maronite Church FAQ - Beith Souryoye Morounoye|website=beith-morounoye.org}}
Malabar Independent Syrian Church
Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
Mar Thoma Syrian Church
Syriac Orthodox Church
Coptic Orthodox Church{{Cite web|url=http://www.suscopts.org/coptic-orthodox/fasts-and-feasts/|title=Coptic Fasts & Feasts – Coptic Orthodox|website=Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States}}
Ethiopian Orthodox Church
Eritrean Orthodox Church
| begins = Monday of the third week before Lent
| ends = Thursday of the third week before Lent (i.e. feast day)
| date =
| date2015 = 26–28 January / 2–4 February {{cite web |url=http://soc-wus.netfirms.com/CAL2015/2.jpg |title=Calendar 3015 |website=soc-wus.netfirms.com |access-date=12 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910075055/http://soc-wus.netfirms.com/CAL2015/2.jpg |archive-date=10 September 2015 |url-status=dead}}
| date2016 = 18–20 January / 22–24 February{{Cite web |title=February Calendar of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch |url=http://soc-wus.netfirms.com/CAL2016/2.jpg |access-date=2022-09-17 |website=Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch - Archdiocese of the Western United States}}
| date2018 = 29–31 January{{Cite web |title=January Calendar of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch |url=http://www.soc-wus.org/CAL2018/1.jpg |access-date=2022-09-17 |website=Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch- Archdiocese of the Western United States}}
| date2020 = 03-05 February (Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church)
10–12 February (Coptic orthodox){{Cite web |title=Coptic Fasts & Feasts 2020 A.D. / 1736–1737 A.M. |url=http://suscopts.org/coptic-orthodox/fasts-and-feasts/2020/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211025195941/http://suscopts.org/coptic-orthodox/fasts-and-feasts/2020/ |archive-date=2021-10-25 |access-date=2022-09-17 |website=Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States}}
| date2022 = 7–9 February (Assyrian Church of the East,
Syriac Christian Churches,
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church,
Chaldean Catholic Church){{Cite web|url=https://news.assyrianchurch.org/calendar/|title=Calendar|website=Assyrian Church News}}{{Cite web|url=https://chaldeanchurch.org/liturgical-year-of-the-chaldean-church/|title = Liturgical Seasons – Chaldean Diocese of St. Thomas the Apostle U.S.A}}
14–16 February (Coptic orthodox), Syriac Orthodox Church{{Cite web |title=Coptic Fasts & Feasts 2022 A.D. / 1738–1739 A.M. |url=http://suscopts.org/coptic-orthodox/fasts-and-feasts/2022/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320004034/http://suscopts.org/coptic-orthodox/fasts-and-feasts/2022/ |archive-date=2022-03-20 |access-date=2022-09-17 |website=Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States}}
| date2023 = 6–8 February (Coptic orthodox){{Cite web |title=Coptic Fasts & Feasts 2023 A.D. / 1739–1740 A.M. |url=http://suscopts.org/coptic-orthodox/fasts-and-feasts/2023/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211025190312/http://suscopts.org/coptic-orthodox/fasts-and-feasts/2023/ |archive-date=2021-10-25 |access-date=2022-09-17 |website=Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States}} 30 January- 1 February in churches using the Western Calendar
| date2024 = 22-24 January (Assyrian Church of the East,
Syriac Christian Churches,
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church,
Chaldean Catholic Church){{Cite web|url=https://news.assyrianchurch.org/calendar/|title=Calendar|website=Assyrian Church News}}{{Cite web|url=https://chaldeanchurch.org/liturgical-year-of-the-chaldean-church/|title = Liturgical Seasons – Chaldean Diocese of St. Thomas the Apostle U.S.A}}
, Syriac Orthodox Church
| date2025 = 10-12 February
| observances =
| relatedto = Great Lent
| duration = 3 days
| frequency = Annual
}}
In Syriac Christianity, the Fast of Nineveh ({{langx|syc|ܒܥܘܬܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܝ̈ܐ}} {{transliteration|syc|Bā'ūṯā ḏ-Ninwāyē}}, literally "Petition of the Ninevites") is a three-day fast starting the third Monday before Clean Monday from Sunday Midnight to Wednesday noon, during which participants usually abstain from all dairy foods and meat products. However, some observe the fast more rigorously and abstain from food and drink altogether from Sunday midnight to Wednesday after Holy Qurbana, which is celebrated before noon.
The three day fast of Nineveh commemorates the three days that Prophet Jonah spent inside the belly of the Great Fish and the subsequent repentance with fasting from food and water performed by the Ninevites at the warning message of the prophet Jonah (cf. {{Bibleverse|Jonah|3|RSV}}).{{cite web|title=Three Day Fast of Nineveh|url=http://syrianorthodoxchurch.org/news/2011/02/10/three-day-fast-of-nineveh/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110213054543/http://syrianorthodoxchurch.org/news/2011/02/10/three-day-fast-of-nineveh/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2011-02-13|publisher=Syrian Orthodox Church (retrieved from the Internet Archive)}}
Biblical basis
The prophet Jonah appears in 2 Kings aka 4 Kings and is therefore thought to have been active around 786–746 BC.{{Bibleverse|2|Kings|14:25|HE}} The biblical text of Jonah 3 holds that after the prophet Jonah warned those inhabiting Nineveh for the second time, its inhabitants repented, fasting from food and water, along with wearing ashes and sackcloth.{{cite book |last1=Bromiley |first1=Geoffrey William |title=The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia |date=1979 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-3782-0 |pages=1115-1116 |language=en}} For this reason, God spared the Ninevites according to the text.
According to John Boardman, a possible scenario which facilitated the acceptance of Jonah's preaching to the Ninevites is that the reign of Ashur-dan III saw a plague break out in 765 BC, revolt from 763-759 BC and another plague at the end of the revolt. These documented events suggest that Jonah's words were given credibility and adhered to, with everyone fasting from food and water, including animals and children.{{cite book|last=Boardman|first=John|title=The Cambridge Ancient History Vol. III Part I: The Prehistory of the Balkans, the Middle East and the Aegean World, Tenth to Eighth Centuries BC|year=1982|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521224963|page=276|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vXljf8JqmkoC&pg=PA276 |access-date=19 October 2013}}
History
= Church of the East =
As the patriarch Joseph (552–556/567 AD) ({{langx|syc|ܝܘܣܦ}}) had been deposed, Ezekiel ({{langx|syc|ܚܙܩܝܐܝܠ}}) was selected to replace him in the Church of the East, much to the joy of the emperor Khusrow Anushirwan who loved him and held him in high esteem.Chronicle of Seert, ii. 100–101 A mighty plague devastated Mesopotamia with the Sassanian authorities unable to curb its spread and the dead littered the streets, in particular the imperial capital Seleucia-Ctesiphon ({{langx|syc|ܣܠܝܩ ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢ}}) The metropolitans of the East Syriac ecclesiastical provinces of Adiabene ({{langx|syc|ܚܕܝܐܒ}} "Ḥdāyaḇ", encompassing Arbil, Nineveh, Hakkari and Adhorbayjan) and Beth Garmaï ({{langx|syc|ܒܝܬ ܓܪ̈ܡܝ}} "Bēṯ Garmai", encompassing Kirkuk and the surrounding region) called for services of prayer, fasting and penitence to be held in all the churches under their jurisdiction, as was believed to have been done by the Ninevites following the preaching of the prophet Jonah.
Following its success, the tradition has been strictly adhered to every year by the descendants of the Church of the East (Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, and the others). Patriarchs of the Church of the East and Chaldean Catholic Church also called for extra fasts{{when|date=January 2018}} in an effort to alleviate the suffering and affliction of those persecuted by ISIS in the region of Nineveh and the rest of the Middle East.{{CN|date=March 2023}}
= Other Churches =
Although the fast of the Ninevites was originally observed in the Church of the East, Marutha of Tikrit is known to have imposed the Fast of Nineveh in the West Syriac Church, and served as Maphrian of the Syriac Orthodox Maphrianate of the East until his death on 2 May 649.Barsoum, Ignatius Aphrem I (2003). Matti Moosa, ed. [http://www.syriacstudies.com/AFSS/Syriac_Scholars_and_Writers/Entries/2008/3/22_70-_Peter_III_of_al-Raqqa_(Callinicus)_(d._591).html The Scattered Pearls: The History of Syriac Literature and Sciences] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023100746/http://www.syriacstudies.com/AFSS/Syriac_Scholars_and_Writers/Entries/2008/3/22_70-_Peter_III_of_al-Raqqa_(Callinicus)_(d._591).html |date=2021-10-23 }}/1.jpg
In the days of Pope Abraham of Alexandria (who was ethnically Syrian), the Coptic Orthodox Church adopted the fast, from which it spread to the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches, all of which still retain its observance.