FEAST

also called festival day or period of time set aside to commemorate, ritually celebrate or reenact, or anticipate events or seasonsagricultural, religious, or socioculturalthat give meaning and cohesiveness to an individual and to the religious, political, or socioeconomic community. Because such days or periods generally originated in religious celebrations or ritual commemorations that usually included sacred community meals, they are called feasts or festivals. See also the Table of worldwide feasts, festivals, and holidays. The terms feast and festival usuallythough not always in modern timesinvolve eating or drinking or both in connection with a specific kind of rite: passage rites, death rites, sacrificial rites, seasonal observances, commemorative observances, and rites celebrating the ending of fasts or fast periods. Fasting, the opposite of feasting, has often been associated with purification rites or as a preparatory discipline for the celebration of feasts and associated rites. Festivals often include not only feasting but also dramatic dancing and athletic events, as well as revelries and carnivals that at times border on the licentious. Depending upon the central purpose of a feast or festival, the celebration may be solemn or joyful, merry, festive, and ferial. Another term associated with the events and activities of days of sacred significance is holy day, from which is derived the word holiday. This term has come to mean a day or period of special significance not only in religious calendars (e.g., the Christian Christmas and the Jewish Hanukkah) but also in the secular (e.g., May Day in Russia and Labor Day in the United States and Canada, both of which holidays celebrate especially the accomplishments of the working class). This section, though it will concentrate on feasts and festivals in the history of religions, will also give attention to the holidays of what has been termed the secular (or profane) sphere. Most secular holidays, however, have some relationshipin terms of originwith religious feasts and festivals. The modern practice of vacationsi.e., periods in which persons are renewed or participate in activities of recreationis derived from the ancient Roman religious calendar in a reverse fashion. More than 100 days of the year were feast days dedicated to various Roman gods and goddesses. On the days that were sacred festivals, and thus holy days, persons rested from their routine daily activities. Days that were not considered sacred were called dies vacantes, vacant days, during which people worked. In modern times, however, vacations (derived from the term dies vacantes) are periods of rest, renewal, or recreation that may be sacred or secular holidaysor simply periods of time away from everyday work allowed by modern business or labour practices. Feasts and festivals, originating in the dim past of man's social, religious, and psychic history, are rich in symbols that have only begun to be investigated in the 19th and 20th centuries by anthropologists, comparative folklorists, psychoanalysts, sociologists, historians of religion, and theologians. Such investigations will not only elucidate mythological, ritualistic, doctrinal, aesthetic, and psychic motifs and themes but will also provide educative insights to modern people, who have been caught up in social and religious forces that they have found difficult to understand. Feasts and festivals in the past have been significant informational and cohesive devices for the continuity of societies and religious institutions. Even when the feasts or festivals have lost their original meanings in doctrinal or mythological explanations, the symbols preserved in the rites, ceremonies, and arts (e.g., pictorial, dramatic, or choreographic) have enabled persons in periods of crisis or transition to preserve an equanimity despite apparent evidences of disintegration within their cultures or societies. Thus, the scholarly investigations of the many and various facets of feasts and festivals will provide different forms of information that will be of help to modern people in achieving an understanding of their origins, identities, and destinies. also called festival day or period of time set aside to commemorate or ritually celebrate events or time periods (agricultural, religious, or socio-cultural) that give meaning and cohesiveness to an individual and his community. The term derives from the fact that such days or periods generally originated in religious celebrations or ritual commemorations that included sacred communal meals: feast is thus the opposite of fast (see fasting). The major religious feasts and festivals, with few exceptions, are annual. The religious year not only represents a span of time but is also a representation of sacred events of the past eternally recurring. Just as the Christian year beginning with Advent is a reenactment of sacred events, the year in other religions also presents a sacred cycle. Among historic religions, the cyclic re-creation of time is most explicit in the Zoroastrian New Year. The unrestrained character of most New Year festivals represents cyclic chaos before creation and is most pronounced in primitive religions, though it survives in the Hindu Holi and similar rites. Festivals possess an educational and social as well as a religious character. In primitive cults having no written records, seasonal recital of mythology at festival time serves the function of transmitting traditional lore within the tribe. Festivals bind a religious group into a unity that transcends family and local ties. The Muslims of Arabia and Indonesia come into a socio-religious relationship in spite of geographical separation by virtue of their common observance of the festival associated with the fast of Ramadan. Continuity between the living and the dead is maintained by communal offerings at festivals, and the cosmic order that underlies social order is maintained by honouring the gods. The unity of denominations within religions, such as the Saivites in Hinduism or the Shi'ites in Islam, is secured by sectarian observances. The solidarity of the ancient Greek or Mesopotamian city was celebrated by festal worship of the local deity, while larger political solidarity was preserved by subordinating local festivals in the context of a great national calendar. In primitive religions the festivals of the village deity perform the same role. Great feast days recapitulate the history of religion in any given place: the pre-Christian cult of the dead in northern Europe survives in All Saints' Day; the Thai New Year includes older primitive and Hindu aspects incorporated into the later Buddhist celebration, and the Sikh festival of hola is an adaptation of the older Hindu Holi. For a list of feasts, festivals, and holidays worldwide, see holiday. Additional reading E.O. James, Seasonal Feasts and Festivals (1961), is a classic work on feasts and festivals of seasonal renewal and on Western folk festivals and customs from prehistoric times to the early 20th century. Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane (1959), is a classic treatment of the concept of sacred time. W. Brede Kristensen, The Meaning of Religion (1960), is a phenomenological treatment of feasts and festivals. C. Jouco Bleeker and Geo Widengren (eds.), Historia Religionum: Handbook for the History of Religions, 2 vol. (196971), incorporates feasts and festivals into the general framework of particular religions. H.W. Parke, Festivals of the Athenians (1977), describes these ancient celebrations. Walter Krickeberg et al., Die Religionen des Alten Amerika (1961; Eng. trans., Pre-Columbian American Religions, 1968), includes treatment of various feasts, festivals, and associated rites. John S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy, pp. 110165 (1969), covers feasts and festivals associated with African passage rites. Derk Bodde, Festivals in Classical China (1975), has important information on the Han dynasty. Jean Herbert, Aux Sources du Japon: le Shint (1964; Eng. trans., Shinto, 1967), covers the feasts and festivals of Shinto in detail (pp. 147224). John B. Noss, Man's Religions, 6th ed. (1980), provides the best single-volume coverage of the feasts and festivals of the various religions of the world. P. Rafael Avila, Worship and Politics (1981), is a historical overview of religious feasts.