As of: February 17, 2024, 6:00 a.m
By: Michaele Heske
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Donuts in the safe: Deacon Christian Marcon is currently avoiding sweets.
© Michaele Heske
Renunciation and inner contemplation: This is what fasting means for believers and health-conscious people.
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– Lent is a time of renunciation and reflection.
Some Christians now don't touch sweets or meat and reduce their alcohol consumption.
But fasting is also happening more often outside of religious tradition.
The trend is “digital detox”, i.e. digital detoxification by avoiding smartphones etc.
No matter what you leave out: “Lent offers a good opportunity to pause,” says Renate Emehrer, pastor at the Isar-Amper-Klinikum in Taufkirchen.
The pastoral officer doesn't want to eat chocolate in the next 40 days, but retreats are much more important to her.
The Catholic takes half an hour every day for prayer.
“It's about reflecting in silence, asking yourself where you actually stand.” This year, Lent lasts until March 30th.
There are still fixed rules, but younger people in particular often no longer know the meaning behind them, says Christian Marcon, deacon in the Maria Dorfen parish association.
“It's not about renunciation per se, but about repentance and inner reflection - about once again keeping an eye on Christ, the Savior.” These days are seen as preparation for Easter, for the resurrection, “a spiritual one spiritual events,” adds the Dorfen town priest Stephan Matula.
Every world religion has a fasting period, but works with its own rites.
Amira Khaled comes from Syria, and for the Muslim it is a given in her new home Erding not to eat anything from daybreak to sunset during the fasting month of Ramadan, which begins on March 10th this year.
However, it is not just food and drink that is avoided.
“You should also only talk to the bare minimum, don’t use perfume, don’t smoke and don’t have sex,” says the translator.
“We still take this very seriously – much more seriously than most Christians I know.”
Despite all the religious background, Dr.
Ludwig Rudolf points out the positive effects on the body: “If you reduce sugar and alcohol these days, you will protect your health.
When you go without, you usually feel mentally stronger.” The gastroenterologist from Dorfen regularly fasts at several intervals, but spread out over the course of the year.
"That feels good."
For Lisa Bönisch, a social worker at Caritas in Erdig, Lent is an incentive to do more sport.
For her, this resolution also has less to do with faith.
“It’s a limited period of time – from carnival to Easter,” says the 27-year-old.
Anyone who perseveres will be rewarded with a really good feeling.
Sue Schönemann (23) is also hoping for this: “I’m fasting on social media for the first time this year,” admits the woman from Dorfen.
No Instagram, no Facebook, no TikTok – that’s the student’s plan.
“Sometimes I have the feeling that my smartphone controls me and not the other way around.” Many of her fellow students are also “digitally detoxifying themselves to come back to themselves.”
Joshua Wandner from Dorfen also switches off his cell phone more and more often in order to enjoy long walks without the constant “pinging”.
Even as you stick to your fasting resolution, you will be rewarded with a good feeling.
This also motivated the artist and art therapist Albin Zauner to give up his car during Lent last year.
“It wasn’t that easy because I had to take public transport to work in Taufkirchen,” says the villager.
The bus was often unpunctual, and sometimes he stood at the stop and waited in vain for the transfer to the neighboring community: “Pure stress,” he says and admits with a laugh: “This year I’m fasting on exactly nothing.”