FEAST, or Festival, in a religious sense, is the ceremony of feasting and thanksgiving. The word is formed from the Latin festum, which some derive a feriari, to keep holiday; others, however, derive it from the Greek ⅛τια,(n, I feast or entertain, from i<rna, hearth, or fire. Feasts and the ceremonies connected with them have formed great part of the religion of almost all nations and sects; of the Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, Christians, and Mahommedans.

The first feasts amongst the Greeks were celebrated in solemn assemblies of the whole nation, on occasion of their games, as the Olympian, the Pythian, the Isthmian, and Nemaean; but in process of time they had many others the principal of which are enumerated in the course of this work.

The Romans also had abundance of stated feasts in honour of their deities and heroes; as the Saturnalia, Cerealia, Lupercalia, Liberalia, Neptunalia, Consualia, Portumnalia, Vulcanalia, Palilia, Divalia, and others. They had also feasts instituted occasionally, as Carmentalia, Quirinalia, Terminalia, Floralia, Compitalia, Lemuria, Vernalia; besides other moveable and occasional ones, to give thanks to the gods for benefits received; to implore their assistance, or to appease their wrath, as the Paganalia, Feralia, Bacchanalia, Ambarvalia, Amburbalia, Suovetaurilia, and various others, denominated feriae ; as Sementinae, Latinae, &c. The feasts were divided into days of sacrifice, and days of banqueting and feasting; days of games, and days of rest or feriae. As there was but little history written, or at least published, in those days, one end of these feasts was to preserve the remembrance of past occurrences.

The principal festivals of the Jews were the feast of trumpets, that of the expiation, that of tabernacles, that of the dedication, that of the passover, that of pentecost, and that of purification. The modern Jews have other feasts marked in their kalendar, but these are of modern institution. The Mahommedans, besides their weekly feast or Sabbath, which is observed on Friday, have two solemn feasts, the first of which is called the Feast of Victims, and celebrated on the tenth day of the last month of their year; and the second is called Bairam. The Chinese have two solemn annual feasts, in the memory of Confucius, besides others of less note on various days of the year.

Festivals amongst us are either immoveable or rnονeable. Immoveable feasts are those constantly celebrated on the same day of the year. The principal of these are Christmas day or the Nativity, the Circumcision, Epiphany, Candlemas or the Purification, Lady Day or the Annunciation, called also the Incarnation and Conception, All Saints, and All Souls; besides the days of the several apostles, which with us are feasts, though not feriae. Moveable feasts are those which are not confined to the same day of the year. Of these, the principal is Easter, which gives the law to the rest, all of them following and keeping their proper distances from it; as Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Ash-Wednesday, Sexagesima, Ascension-Day, Pentecost, and Trinity-Sunday. The four feasts which the English laws take special notice of are, the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary, or Lady Day, the 25th of March; the nativity of St John the Baptist, on the 24th of June; the Feast of St Michael the Archangel, on the 29th of September; and that of St Thomas the Apostle, on the 21st of December.

Besides these feasts, which are general, and enjoined by the church, there are others local and occasionaD enjoined by the magistrate, or voluntarily observed by the people, as days of thanksgiving for delivery from wars, plague», and other evils; and also the vigils or wakes in commemoration of the dedication of particular churches.

The prodigious increase of festival days in the Christian church commenced towards the close of the fourth century, and was occasioned by the discovery which was tnθ n made of the remains of martyrs and other holy men, or the commemoration of whom they were established. B¶ instead of being set apart for pious exercises, these festiva s were abused in indolence, voluptuousness, and criminal prac [7:9:497]tices. Many of them were instituted on’ a Pagan model, and perverted to the most scandalous purposes.

Feast is also used to signify a banquet or sumptuous entertainment, without any immediate view to religion.

The use of the word, in this sense, arises from the circumstance that part of the ceremony in many of the ancient festivals, both those of the heathens and of the Christians, was good eating; though Huet chooses to derive the word from festinare, which, in an ancient Latin version of Origen’s Commentary on Matthew, signifies to feast: Ui veniens illuc Jesus festinct, cum discipulis suis.

Social or civil feasts were also expressed by the words convivium and compotatio or concarnatio. Cicero says that, in the Roman language, the word convivium, which means people assembled at table, is more significant of refinement than the Greek word compotatio or concoenatio. The Roman term, says he, expresses the conjunction of body and mind which ought to take place at an entertainment; the Greek merely denotes what relates to the body alone.

As food is necessary to our existence, eating together forms a bond of association among mankind. People at a feast, says one of the ancients, seem to form but one body and one soul. All nations, whether savage or civilized, have regarded the pleasures of the table as the occasion of the most agreeable society. This species of enjoyment, abstracting from its susceptibility of abuse, makes but one family of all whom it brings together. It levels the distinctions introduced by policy or prejudice, and disposes men to regard one another as brethren. It is here that people feel the equality established by nature, forget the evils of life, extinguish their hatred, and cause their enmities to cease. For this reason Aristotle considers as a breach of die social principle the custom of eating apart which obtained amongst the ancient Egyptians, and praises the convivial repasts established by Minos and Lycurgus.

The Persians generally deliberated on business at table, but never determined or put their determinations in execution, except in the morning before having eaten.

When the Germans, says Tacitus, wanted to reconcile enemies, to form alliances, to appoint chiefs, or to treat of war and peace, it was during the repast that they took counsel; a time in which the mind is most open to the impressions of simple truth, or most easily animated to great attempts. These artless people during the conviviality of the feast spoke without disguise, and next day weighed the counsels of the former evening; they deliberated at a time when they were not disposed to deceive, and took their resolution when they were least liable to be deceived.

By a fundamental law of the state, people of rank amongst the Rhodians were obliged to dine daily with those who ∣ad the management of affairs, in order to deliberate with them concerning such things as were necessary or useful for the country; and on this account the principal ministers of the kingdom were obliged to keep open table for all who could be of service to the state.

Amongst the Romans, the place where they supped was generally the vestibule, lest a more retired part of the house should encourage licentiousness and disorder. There were several laws which restricted their meals to the vestibules. But when luxury reigned at Rome, the wealthy had superb halls for their entertainments. Lucullus had many, each of which bore the name of some deity; and this was a mark which indicated to the servants the expense of the entertainment. The expense of a supper in Lucullus’s hall of Apollo amounted to fifty thousand drachmas. The all i∏ which Nero feasted imitated the revolutions of the e avens, by the circular motion of its walls and its ceiling; . represented the different seasons of the year, changing at every course, and showering down flowers and perfumes on the guests.

+ uP ie r i 0 "≡ s did not, like us, confine themselves to one table at their feasts; they had generally two; one for the service of animal food, which was afterwards removed; and another for the dessert, at which last they sung, and poured out their libations. The Greeks and eastern nations observed the same custom, and even the Jews in their solemn feasts and at sacrifices.

The Romans, in the time of Nero, had tables made of citron wood brought from Mauritania, which were covered with purple and gold, and raised on feet of carved ivory. It is said that these tables were more precious than gold itself. Dion Cassius affirms that Seneca had five hundred of these, which he made use of one after another; and Tertullian informs us that Cicero had only one. The Romans usually chose the king of the feast, or chairman as we would call him, by a cast of the dice.

We learn from Herodotus that the ancients had neither cups nor bowls, but drank out of little horns tipped with silver or gold. l

The Greeks and Romans kept a domestic for the purpose of reading during their meals and feasts. The head of the family sometimes performed the office of reader himself; and we learn that the Emperor Severus often read whilst his family sat or rather reclined at table. The time of reading was generally at supper; and guests were invited to a reading, as they arc now a-days to play cards. In their flourishing times the Greeks did not, according to their own expression, profane the sanctity of the table, but rather adorned it with ingenious and elegant conversation, proposing moral topics, of which Plutarch has preserved a collection. Ancient philosophers have remarked, that heroes rarely assembled convivially without bringing affairs of consequence into discussion, or deliberating upon those which regarded either present affairs or future contingencies.

When Rome became corrupted with luxury, singers, dancers, musicians, stage-players, and people who told pleasant tales, were brought into the hall to amuse the guests. Plutarch informs us that Caesar, after his triumphs, treated the Roman people at twenty-two thousand tables; and by calculation it would seem that there must have been at these tables upwards of two hundred thousand persons.

It was a custom among the Romans, at the end of a feast, to drink out of a large cup as often as there were letters in the names of their mistresses.

Feasting seems to have been the chief delight of the Germans, Gauls, Britons, and all the other Celtic nations; and in this they indulged themselves to the utmost, as often as they had an opportunity. “Amongst these nations,” says an author who had carefully studied their manners, “there is no public assembly, either for civil or religious purposes, duly held; no birth-day, marriage, or funeral, properly celebrated; no treaty of peace or alliance rightly cemented, without a great feast.” It was by frequent entertainments of this kind that the great men or chieftains gained the affections and rewarded the services of their followers; and those who made the greatest feasts were sure to be most popular, and to have the largest retinue. These feasts, in which plenty was more regarded than elegance, commonly lasted several days, and the guests seldom retired until they had consumed the provisions and exhausted the liquors provided for the occasion. Athenaeus describes an entertainment given by Arcamnes, a wealthy prince of Gaul, which continued a whole year without interruption, and at which all the people of Gaul, and even all strangers who passed through that country, were made welcome. At these feasts they sometimes consulted about the most important affairs of state, and formed resolutions relating to peace and war; imagining that men spoke their real sentiments with the greatest freedom, and were apt to form the boldest designs, [7:9:498]when their spirits were exhilarated with the pleasures of the table. The conversation at these entertainments frequently turned on the great exploits which the guests themselves or their ancestors had performed in war; a circumstance which sometimes occasioned quarrels, and even bloodshed.

As to the drink used at these feasts, particularly in Britain, it seems probable that before the introduction of agriculture into the island, mead, or honey diluted with water, was the only strong liquor known to its inhabitants, as it was to many other ancient nations. And this continued to be a favourite beverage amongst the ancient Britons and their posterity long after they had become acquainted with other liquors. The mead-maker was the eleventh person in dignity in the courts of the ancient princes of Wales, and took place next to the physician. An ancient law of that principality shows how much this liquor was esteemed by the British princes. “There are three things in the court which must be communicated to the king before they are made known to any other person: first, every sentence of the judge; second, every new song; and, third, every cask of mead.” This was perhaps the liquor which is called by Ossian the joy and strength of shells, with which his heroes were so much delighted. After the introduction of agriculture, ale or beer became the most general drink of all the British nations who practised that art, as -it had long been of all the Celtic nations on the Continent. If the Phoenicians or Greeks imported any wine into Britain, it was only in small quantities; and that generous liquor was but little known in this island until after it had been conquered by the Romans.

In the reign of Charles V. of France, the custom of placing the lights upon the table had not yet been introduced. A number of domestics held the lights in their hands during the whole time of the repast.