All adults are required to fast. Boys and girls before their Bar or Bat Mitzvahs are not required to fast. People that are too ill to fast are also not required to fast. The service is started before sundown because we are asking for all of the vows we have taken or the promises that we have made and not kept be forgotten. This is like a lawyer asking for something and it is not done on a holiday or Shabbat, so before the sun goes down and the holiday begins, we say this three times.
Many people wear sneakers or soft slippers throughout the day rather than leather shoes.
Now it is time to break the fast.