Should one avoid fasting during Easter?

Question

Tomorrow is the first Friday in Easter and in the Catholic Church Fridays are days of penance. If a person usually does something small, like not continuously munch on things while at his desk, in Ordinary time and during Lent, is that person permitted (or obligated) to not do those things during Easter?

I know it's one of those things that has to be up to one's conscience, but would a well formed conscience do well to rejoice during the season of Easter rather than continue the same routine they carry during other seasons?

Answer 1

1. Ask your priest
2. In Eastern Orthodoxy there are times where fasting is forbidden. Check to see if there are periods like that in the Roman rule: the week after Easter is one of those periods for us.

Answer 2

In the Roman Catholic Church, the first eight days of the Easter Season make up the Octave of Easter and are celebrated as Solemnities of the Lord according to General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar. http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=5932#Easter

As each of those days is a Feast of the first order, fasting is clearly inappropriate.

Indeed, because The fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day, or better as one "great Sunday," (ibid) it may be inappropriate to fast throughout the Easter season. St Augustine said of Sundays, "Fasting is set aside and prayers are said standing, as a sign of the Resurrection, which is also why the Alleluia is sung on every Sunday". (Ep. 55, 28: CSEL 342, 202)