Meat-free days or veggiedays are declared to discourage or prohibit the consumption of meat on certain days of the week. Mondays and Fridays are the most popular days. There are also movements encouraging people giving up meat on a weekly, monthly, or permanent basis.[citation needed]
Abstention from meat, other than fish, was historically done for religious reasons (e.g. the Friday Fast). In the Methodist Church, on Fridays, especially those of Lent, "abstinence from meat one day a week is a universal act of penitence".[1][2] Anglicans (Episcopalians) and Roman Catholics also traditionally observe Friday as a meat-free day.[3][4] Historically, Anglican and Catholic countries enforced prohibitions on eating meat, other than fish, on certain days of Lent. In England, for example, "butchers and victuallers were bound by heavy recognizances not to slaughter or sell meat on the weekly 'fish days', Friday and Saturday."[5] In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Wednesdays and Fridays are meat-free days.[6] In the Lutheran Church, Fridays and Saturdays are historically considered meat-free days.[7] In addition to the Fridays of the year, in Western Christianity, Ash Wednesday—the first day of the repentance themed season of Lent—is a traditional day of fasting and abstinence from meat.[8][9]
Among East Asian Buddhists, vegetarian Buddhist cuisine was eaten on days tied to the phases of the moon known as Uposatha.[citation needed]
Meat-free days have also been observed due to wartime rationing (e.g. Meatless Tuesdays in Canada[10] and the United States—which also observed Wheatless Wednesdays—during World War I)[11][12] or in states with failing economies.[citation needed]
In the People's Republic of Poland, meat-free days were encouraged by the government due to market forces. They were aimed at limiting meat consumption, primarily in favour of flour-based foods. The meat-free day was traditionally Friday, Monday or Wednesday.[citation needed]
Attempts to reintroduce meat-free days are part of a campaign to reduce anthropogenic climate change and improve human health and animal welfare by reducing factory farming and promoting vegetarianism or veganism.
Asia
Hong Kong
- Daily "Meat Free Hong Kong Meetup"[16]
India
- International Meatless Day, also called the 'International Vegetarian Day', 25 November, birthday of Sadhu T.L. Vaswani, an Indian educator and advocate for vegetarianism. The day is celebrated by abstaining from eating non-vegetarian food. who was an Indian educationist who started the Mira development for improving Indian instructional framework, beginning with settling St. Mira's School in Hyderabad, Sindh. The campaign for International Meatless Day was begun in 1986 by the Sadhu Vaswani Mission, an association for social administration for the abused and underprivileged.[17][18]
North America
United States
- Los Angeles has declared all Mondays "Meatless Mondays," citing actions by Baltimore public-school system, Oakland, California Unified School District and school districts in Arlington, Virginia, Oneida, New York, Longmont, Colorado; the cities of San Francisco, Takoma Park and Annapolis, Maryland, Marin County, California and the District of Columbia Council.[29][30]
McKnight, Scot (2010). Fasting: The Ancient Practices. Thomas Nelson. p. 88. ISBN 9781418576134. John Wesley, in his Journal, wrote on Friday, August 17, 1739, that "many of our society met, as we had appointed, at one in the afternoon and agreed that all members of our society should obey the Church to which we belong by observing 'all Fridays in the year' as 'days of fasting and abstinence.'
Buchanan, Colin (4 August 2009). The A to Z of Anglicanism. Scarecrow Press. p. 182. ISBN 9780810870086. In the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, there is a list of "Days of Fasting, or Abstinence," consisting of the 40 days of Lent, the ember days, the three rogation days (the Monday to Wednesday following the Sunday after Ascension Day), and all Fridays in the year (except Christmas, if it falls on a Friday).
Barrows, Susanna; Room, Robin (1991). Drinking: Behavior and Belief in Modern History. University of California Press. p. 340. ISBN 9780520070851. Retrieved 27 April 2014. The main legally enforced prohibition in both Catholic and Anglican countries was that against meat. During Lent, the most prominent annual season of fasting in Catholic and Anglican churches, authorities enjoined abstinence from meat and sometimes "white meats" (cheese, milk, and eggs); in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England butchers and victuallers were bound by heavy recognizances not to slaughter or sell meat on the weekly "fish days," Friday and Saturday.
Vitz, Evelyn Birge (1991). A Continual Feast. Ignatius Press. p. 80. ISBN 9780898703849. Retrieved 27 April 2014. In the Orthodox groups, on ordinary Wednesdays and Fridays no meat, olive oil, wine, or fish can be consumed.
Lund, Eric (January 2002). Documents from the History of Lutheranism, 1517–1750. Fortress Press. p. 166. ISBN 9781451407747. Of the Eating of Meat: One should abstain from the eating of meat on Fridays and Saturdays, also in fasts, and this should be observed as an external ordinance at the command of his Imperial Majesty.
Buchanan, Colin (2015). Historical Dictionary of Anglicanism. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 256. ISBN 9781442250161.
Alter, S. Amritsar to Lahore: A Journey Across the India-Pakistan Border. pp. 107-109