The Sheila Show

Fasting as a sacred practice in global spiritual traditions

From the golden minarets of Cairo to the misty peaks of the Himalayas, from the red centre of Australia to the smoky churches of Andalusia, humans have long practised deliberate abstinence from food as a doorway into deeper experience. The word fasting appears in almost every language, yet the forms it takes reveal an extraordinary tapestry of belief, climate, and community.

Across most traditions, fasting shares a common architecture: intention, restraint, and a turning inward. Whether a devotee is observing Ramadan in Lakemba, sitting through Yom Kippur in a Melbourne synagogue, or undertaking a juice cleanse in a Bondi health studio, the body becomes quieter so that something else can be heard.

In an age of constant notifications and abundance, the practice has resurfaced with new urgency. Australians juggling shift work in remote mines, long commutes between suburbs like Parramatta and Penrith, and the pull of twenty-four-hour delivery apps are rediscovering what ancient contemplatives knew: silence, scarcity, and rhythm can reset a scattered mind.

Because Australia is one of the most religiously diverse nations on earth, these traditions often overlap in ordinary places. A Hindu colleague might be observing Ekadashi while a Muslim neighbour prepares iftar, and many neighbourhoods now publish local calendars that honour both rhythms in workplaces, schools, and community centres.

Ancient roots and shared meanings

Archaeological evidence suggests that purposeful fasting predates written history. Skeletal remains from prehistoric communities show nutritional patterns consistent with seasonal abstinence, and oral traditions from Aboriginal Australia speak of ceremonial food taboos tied to dreaming tracks and initiation. Three threads weave through nearly every lineage: purification of the body, clarification of the mind, and solidarity with those who lack.

Whether the practice lasts from sunrise to sunset, as in many Muslim communities, or extends across a full lunar month, the psychological gesture is recognisable across cultures. The table below offers a brief overview of how several major traditions frame the experience, though countless regional variations exist within each.

Tradition Common name Typical duration Primary spiritual aim
Islamic Ramadan / Sawm 29–30 days, dawn to dusk Taqwa, self-discipline
Jewish Yom Kippur / Tzom 25 hours, sunset to sunset Atonement, repentance
Christian Lent / Nativity Fast 40 days (variable) Solidarity, transformation
Hindu Ekadashi / Vrata Single day, twice monthly Detachment, devotion
Buddhist Uposatha Full or new moon days Mindfulness, monastic support
Jain Paryushana 8–10 days, monsoon Spiritual uplift, forgiveness

A global mind tour of the practice

To eat together is universal, but to deliberately refrain from eating reveals a family's deepest convictions. This is true from the Italian diaspora in Carlton, Melbourne, where nonna still observes the lean days before Easter, to the Turkish cafés of Sydney's Auburn Road, where Ramadan iftar tables spill onto footpaths in a nightly festival of dates and lentil soup. The geometry of the practice, what is set aside and what is shared at its close, becomes a quiet language that travellers recognise even when words fail.

In Judaism, the fast of Yom Kippur, known as Tzom, asks adherents to abstain from food and water for roughly twenty-five hours, culminating in the break-fast meal that often includes bagels, lox, and family gathering. The Christian season of Lent echoes this rhythm across forty days, while the Orthodox tradition adds the Nativity Fast leading up to Christmas, a longer arc that has shaped culinary calendars in Greek, Russian, and Coptic communities now scattered across Australian capital cities.

Abrahamic and Dharmic rhythms

To step into a Lakemba mosque at sunset during Ramadan is to feel a centuries-old rhythm moving through a very Australian suburb. The call to maghrib prayer signals iftar, the breaking of the fast, often with dates and laban following the prophetic sunnah. The practice, called sawm, is one of the Five Pillars and is observed by Muslims from Perth to Cabramatta, with local councils in New South Wales often adjusting school lunch programs to support young observers.

In the Hindu tradition, Ekadashi falls on the eleventh day of each lunar fortnight and involves a grain-free fast that many devotees mark with a single meal of fruit. Observers of Vishnu keep the vrata with particular devotion, and the practice is woven into temple life at sites like the Sri Mandir in Auburn. The Buddhist equivalent, Uposatha, aligns monastic and lay practice around the new and full moons, while Jains observe Paryushana, an eight-to-ten-day monsoon retreat focused on confession and study.

Indigenous and earth-based wisdom

Any conversation about fasting in Australia that omits the world's oldest continuous cultures would be a profound oversight. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples practise ceremony-led food abstinence tied to songlines, initiation, and mourning. In the Western Desert, sustained silence and food avoidance accompany men's and women's business, and these protocols are respected by neighbouring communities, including pastoralists and healthcare workers. For those drawn to this lineage, further reflections appear on the show's blog.

Beyond Australia's shores, Native American vision quests, Amazonian plant diets, and the Lenten disciplines of Ethiopian Orthodox communities all share a sense of fasting as a way of listening to land and spirit. In Australia, the rise of bush kindies and nature-connection movements in regions like the Dandenong Ranges has brought renewed interest in screen-free, food-simplified retreats that echo these older teachings.

Yogic, wellness, and secular adaptations

To Western wellness culture, fasting often arrives stripped of its theological clothing and repackaged as biohacking. Intermittent fasting protocols such as 16:8 or 5:2 have moved from medical journals into Bondi juice bars and Perth fitness studios, where the language of autophagy, insulin sensitivity, and cellular renewal replaces the vocabulary of sin and grace. Many listeners first encounter these ideas while driving to work, and shows like the Sheila and Hans broadcast often feature clinicians who translate the science without losing the soul of the practice.

The yogic tradition, however, has long prescribed disciplined abstinence. Practices like kitchari cleanses during the change of seasons, or the longer kumbh mela-style retreats that mirror Paryushana, show that contemplative and physiological goals need not be opposed. Australian naturopaths in Brisbane's West End often blend Ayurveda with contemporary functional medicine, offering supervised guidance that respects both lineage and evidence.

Health, science, and the spiritual heart

Bridges between ancient wisdom and modern science have never been more closely built. Studies on caloric restriction, time-restricted eating, and prolonged supervised fasts suggest measurable effects on insulin regulation, inflammation, and even neural plasticity. The Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia regulates supplements and fasting-related products, and consumers are wise to check claims against the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods before investing hope or money.

For people managing diabetes, pregnancy, eating disorders, or complex medication regimens, fasting is not a casual experiment. Australian GPs increasingly receive questions about intermittent fasting from patients influenced by social media, and guidance from Dietitians Australia emphasises individualised assessment rather than blanket rules. The lesson is simple: physiology matters, and so does the meaning we attach to the practice.

An Australian mosaic of practice

Australia's cities are some of the most religiously diverse on earth. The City of Sydney's diversity statistics show that more than a third of residents were born overseas, and faith communities regularly publish local fasting calendars so workplaces and schools can plan ahead. In Melbourne's northern suburbs, the annual Ramadan night markets draw tens of thousands, while in Adelaide's Hills, Benedictine-inspired communities observe Lenten fasts that connect Italian, Filipino, and Anglo-Celtic worshippers.

To support these rhythms ethically, Australian employers are increasingly adopting flexible leave policies for religious observance, a shift that aligns with the Fair Work Act's provisions for reasonable cultural and religious accommodation. Resources for those wanting to explore the practice more deeply can be found at The Sheila Show shop.

A practitioner's starting point

The practice of fasting, whether observed from a Lakemba mosque, a Parramatta temple, or a quiet Adelaide garden, ultimately returns us to the same quiet truth: that what we take in and what we choose to set aside both shape who we are becoming. A single intentional hour of restraint, repeated with patience and kindness, can become a small sacred door in an ordinary Australian week.