Fast éfasting, i.e, go without food since the day beforea. It's not eating anything for a certain period of time.
Sometimes it is necessary to fast, for example: to undergo some medical exams, to prepare for surgery, as prevention, because during anesthesia the patient can vomit and this vomit can go directly to the bronchi, obstructing the air passage and possibly causing the death of the patient. patient.
In the figurative sense, fasting is abstaining from something. It is to go for a long period without exercising or practicing a certain activity.
For the Catholic Church, the practice of fasting is followed on certain days as penance. Catholicism distinguishes fasting from abstinence. Fasting is the total absence of food and drink (with the exception of water), and abstinence is abstaining from something that is part of greed, of desire.
During Lent, Catholics are offered the act of fasting, so that they can have the same experience as Jesus who fasted in the desert. On the Friday of Lent, abstinence from meat is also proposed. On Good Friday and Ash Wednesday, fasting for an entire day is proposed.
For the Indian pacifist, Mahatma Gandhi fasting was a form of protest against the violence practiced against his people.
Jews fast on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and stay from sunset one day to sunset the next, without eating or drinking anything, not even water.
Muslims fast from dawn to dusk in the festive month of Ramadan, so that all their sins may be forgiven.