vegetarian eateries and restaurants. In conventional restaurants, vegetarian Christians object to food that has been in contact with meat products -- for example, vegetables fried in meat or fish oil, or soup with extracts of chicken or beef broth. When and why do people of this faith feast and fast? Catholics may observe several feast and fast days during the year. Feast days include Christmas, Easter, the Annunciation (March 25th), Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter), the Ascension (40 days after Easter), and Pentecost Sunday (50 days after Easter). The only feast days common to most Protestant and Reformed traditions are Christmas and Easter. Some Catholics fast during Lent, on the Fridays of Advent, Ember Days (at the beginning of the seasons). Some fast or abstain only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Fasting is usually for spiritual reasons, such as teaching control of fleshly desires, as a penance for sin, or to express solidarity with the poor. Some Christians now advocate vegetarianism during Lent for specifically ethical reasons (see http://www.veg4lent.org/ ). The Good Friday fast commemorates the day Christ died on the cross. Fasting in not a major part of the Protestant or Reformed tradition. Written by Reverend Professor Andrew Linzey, PhD, DD The Revd Professor Andrew Linzey, PhD, DD, is an internationally known theologian and writer. He is a member of the Faculty of Theology in the University of Oxford, and holds the world's first post in Theology, Ethics and Animal Welfare - the Bede Jarret Senior Research