Fast Day

"A day of public fasting and prayer," it was traditionally observed in the New England states.

A Fast Day could be added for any particular reason in a particular year, rather than being instituted as an ongoing annual holiday.

The earliest known Fast Day was proclaimed in colonial Boston, held on September 8, 1670.

[1] The colonial Province of New Hampshire proclaimed a Fast Day for February 26, 1680, seeking "God's blessing" on an upcoming General Assembly and for good weather during spring planting.

[1] The image at right shows that Jonathan Belcher, colonial governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, declared a Fast Day in 1735 because of "the holy Anger of Almighty God, evidently manifested in the various judgments inflicted on us", specifically highlighting a "mortal sickness" that had been divinely inflicted on the colonists.