The Fast occupies the nineteenth month of the Bahá'í year, 'Alá', from 1 to 19 March, ending at Naw-Rúz. Bahá'ís from fifteen to seventy abstain from food and drink between sunrise and sunset. Exemptions are broad and stated rather than grudging: the ill, women who are pregnant or nursing or menstruating, travellers under specified conditions, those over seventy, those under fifteen, and those engaged in heavy labour. The writings frame the abstention as symbolic — a period of detachment from material appetite in order to attend to something else — rather than as mortification or atonement, and Bahá'ís generally describe it in those terms, alongside the ordinary reports of headaches and short temper. In high latitudes the sunrise-to-sunset rule produces long days in March, and the institutions have given guidance. It is preceded by the four or five intercalary days of Ayyám-i-Há, which are given over to feasting, gift-giving and charity — the calendar puts the party immediately before the fast rather than after it.