When I first wrote up my plan to fast in honor of Nikolai Vavilov and his institute staff, I conceived of it as basically a thing for myself, that might interest a few other people. It both got much more response than I expected, and more response (positive and negative) treating it as a bid for community structure rather than one of many things that someone, somewhere was doing. That wasn’t my goal and to be honest I feel trepidatious about the concept: I was going for a very specific thing and I’m simultaneously really happy it resonated with so many people and concerned about dilution
But the Vavilov Day concept clearly has enough energy behind it that I don't feel right blocking discussion. I continue to not want to host that discussion on a personal post about my own choices, so have created this post instead.
Some things I think might be good to share here:
Your specific observation of Vavilov Day and how it felt (I was surprised a lot of people defaulted to a 36 hour fast; to the extent other people joined in I expected them to pick their own thing)
Feelings about the core concept and ontology
Ideally keeping discussion about the larger patron saints/holiday anarchy discussion over on that post instead.
What you’d like to be different or the same for you next year.
In my ideal world, this conversation is a bunch of individuals discussing actions and ideas to figure out what works best for them. But some of the pent-up discussion is about that attitude (vs. something more community built), and I don't get to declare my view correct by fiat. However I will ask that you keep that frame in mind and, if someone's responses don't make sense or seem oppressive, consider that this might be why.
A little bit late, but I also particpated in this year's Vavilov Day, and suceeded!
It was my first ever fast longer than 16 hours, and I had no idea how well (or even if at all) I would manage. I started after dinner on the 25th and ended it with breakfast on the morning of the 27th, to spend less time of the fast awake.
At first, I just avoided food and otherwise went through my day as usual, to check where my limits were in the first place. The day went over quite smoothly, and at around 24 hours, when I knew just regular not-eating for 36 hours wasn't really hard for me, I went on to challenge myself by making waffles (a childhood favorite I hadn't had in a very long time), and saving them for the celebratory breakfast the next morning. Looking back, I believe that both the challenge and the reward were about appropriate to my capacity as a first timer.
I found the overall experience really interesting, and as I'm also favorable of the whole patron saint holiday idea, I'll be doing it again next year, perhaps with higher difficulty.
Of course all the people here have different levels of practice and varying limits, but maybe adding a ritual of preparing tempting food specifically to give it to others (to capture the spirit of saving something for somebody else at one's own loss) would be a nice community tradition.
Also, perhaps a fundraiser to support a cause related to securing global food supply? Though I have no idea how one would go about that.
When I first wrote up my plan to fast in honor of Nikolai Vavilov and his institute staff, I conceived of it as basically a thing for myself, that might interest a few other people. It both got much more response than I expected, and more response (positive and negative) treating it as a bid for community structure rather than one of many things that someone, somewhere was doing. That wasn’t my goal and to be honest I feel trepidatious about the concept: I was going for a very specific thing and I’m simultaneously really happy it resonated with so many people and concerned about dilution
But the Vavilov Day concept clearly has enough energy behind it that I don't feel right blocking discussion. I continue to not want to host that discussion on a personal post about my own choices, so have created this post instead.
Some things I think might be good to share here:
In my ideal world, this conversation is a bunch of individuals discussing actions and ideas to figure out what works best for them. But some of the pent-up discussion is about that attitude (vs. something more community built), and I don't get to declare my view correct by fiat. However I will ask that you keep that frame in mind and, if someone's responses don't make sense or seem oppressive, consider that this might be why.