Feast
religion
also called festival
Main
day or period of time set aside to commemorate, ritually celebrate or
reenact, or anticipate events or seasons—agricultural, religious, or
sociocultural—that 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.
The terms feast and festival usually—though not always in modern
times—involve 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 relationship—in terms of origin—with
religious feasts and festivals. The modern practice of vacations—i.e.,
periods in which persons are “renewed” or participate in activities of
“recreation”—is 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 holidays—or
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.
Nature and significance » Concepts of sacred times
By their very nature, feasts and festivals are special times, not just
in the sense that they are extraordinary occasions but more so in the
sense that they are separate from ordinary times. According to Mircea
Eliade, a Romanian-American historian of religion, festival time is
sacred; i.e., it participates in the transcendent (or supernatural)
realm in which the patterns of man’s religious, social, or cultural
institutions and activities were or are established. Through ritualistic
re-enactment of the events that inform man about his origin, identity,
and destiny, a participant in a festival identifies himself with the
sacred time:
Religious man feels the need to plunge periodically into this sacred
and indestructible time. For him it is sacred time that makes possible
the other time, ordinary time, the profane duration in which every human
life takes its course. It is the eternal present of the mythical event
that makes possible the profane duration of historical events.
In religions and cultures that view time as cyclical—and this applies
to most non-monotheistic religions and the cultures influenced by
them—man understands his status in the cosmos, in part, through special
times (e.g., New Year’s festivals) celebrating the victory of order in
nature over chaos. New Year’s festivals have been celebrated in recorded
history for more than five millennia. In ancient Mesopotamia, for
example, Sumerians and Babylonians celebrated the renewal of the
life-sustaining spring rains in the month of Nisan—although some cities
of Mesopotamia retained an ancient custom of celebrating a second
similar festival when the rains returned in the month of Tishri
(autumn). Sacrifices of grain and other foods were dedicated to the gods
Dumuzi (or Tammuz) or Marduk, major fertility deities, at a ziggurat
(tower temple), after which the people participated in feasting,
dancing, and other appropriate ritualistic activities.
In the 20th century, the view that New Year’s Day is a time
significant in the victory of order over disorder has been celebrated,
for example, in areas influenced by Chinese religions. In order to
frighten the kuei (evil or unpredictable spirits), which are believed to
be dispersed by light and noise, participants in the New Year’s festival
light torches, lanterns, bonfires, and candles and explode firecrackers.
In 1953, when the first day of the lunar New Year coincided with a solar
eclipse, the government of the People’s Republic of China (which has
been anti-religious in its propaganda and official activities) expressed
an anxiety that the repressed “religious popular superstitions” might
encourage some form of anti-government activity. According to the views
of Confucius (6th–5th centuries bc) and Mencius (4th–3rd centuries bc),
two of China’s great religious teachers, whose social and ethical
influences have extended into the 20th century, a solar eclipse during
the New Year’s festival is a sign of a coming disaster and of a lack of
favour by Shang Ti, the Heavenly Lord, who sends omens to indicate his
disapproval of man’s evil activities.
In religions and cultures that conceive of time as linear,
progressing from a beginning toward an end time, when the whole cosmos
will be renewed or changed, people understand their status (i.e.,
origin, identity, and destiny) in relationship to particular events in
history that have a significance similar to those expressed in the myths
of people who view time as cyclical. Jews understand their status as
members of the “people of God,” who were “chosen” during the Exodus of
the Hebrews from Egypt in the 13th century bc to be witnesses to the
liberating love of Yahweh (their God). Being the chosen “people of God”
is celebrated especially during the Passover festival—in which the
Exodus is ritually re-enacted and commemorated—in the month of Nisan
(spring). Similarly, the Christian understands his status as a member of
the “new people of God.” He believes that he has been chosen by Christ,
who was crucified and resurrected by God in the 1st century ad, to work
for the Kingdom of God that was inaugurated in the first advent of
Christ and will be consummated at the Parousia, the Second Coming of
Christ as king and judge. The festival of the Resurrection, or Easter,
is ritually re-enacted every year in order that the believer may
participate in the present and future kingdom of peace. The eucharistic
feast (the Holy Communion), though celebrated at many and various times
during the year, originated in the event (namely, the Lord’s Supper on
Holy Thursday preceding Christ’s Passion) that has been interpreted as a
commemoration of the crucifixion and Resurrection. Just as the New
Year’s festivals of the religions that interpreted sacred time as
cyclical incorporated both remorse and joy in their celebrations, so
also the feasts of the Passover and the Resurrection include sorrow for
the sins of the individual and of mankind and joy and hope for the
salvation of man and the world (see also calendar: Ancient and religious
calendar systems; Jewish religious year; church year).
Nature and significance » Times of seasonal changes » The significance
of seasonal renewal in prehistoric times
Before the development of agriculture, with its associations with solar
and lunar calendars, ritual feasts were probably celebrated by hunters
and gatherers of tubers and fruits. Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) peoples
from about 30,000–10,000 bc as well as contemporary peoples such as the
Aboriginals in Australia and New Guinea, have celebrated various rites
in which feasts have assumed positions of significance. Seasonal
variations—important in the maintenance of the food supply—were
associated with the migrations and fertility of animals and the growth
and decay of tubers and fruits upon which the clan or tribe depended for
its very existence. Thus, out of an acknowledgment of seasonal change,
rituals—often including ceremonial feasts—most likely developed in
relationship to beliefs that the continuance of the food supply depended
on the sacred or holy powers that controlled various aspects and facets
of nature: e.g., animals, vegetation, the change in climatic conditions,
weather phenomena, mountains, and rivers.
Access to the sacred or holy powers was obtained and maintained by
certain religious personages (e.g., shamans, or persons having healing
and psychic transformation powers, priests, clan or tribal leaders, and
other persons having special learned or inherited powers). Though
interpretations by scholars vary and the evidence is still subject to
much speculating, Paleolithic cave paintings—such as that of the
“sorcerer” (a bearded figure wearing a mask on the top of which were
antlers of a deer) at Les Trois Frères in France—and rock paintings of
the Aruntas of central Australia—such as totemic animals (symbolizing
clan and animal relationships) or mythological nature heroes (e.g.,
Katuru, the “lightning man”)—may indicate that fertility of animals and
vegetation has been a primary concern (though not the only concern) in
the ritual control of the food supply. Rituals connected with
controlling the food supply generally centre on a feast in which eating,
drinking, dancing, and the chanting of efficacious formulas play
important symbolic roles.
At some point in human history (about 8,000–6,000 bc in the ancient
Near East), when calendrical seasons were associated with planting and
harvesting, special days or periods most likely were set aside for
fasting (because of a paucity in the food supply) or for feasting
(because of an increase in the food supply). Thus some calendrical
periods inspired feelings of discouragement and remorse (when the food
supply was low) or feelings of encouragement or joy (when the food
supply was sufficient to meet immediate and future needs). Certain days
were set aside during these periods for special rituals (often including
feasts) that celebrated seasonal renewal, later interpreted in terms of
individual spiritual or social renewal. In Zoroastrianism and Parsiism,
for example, the annual seasonal renewal festival of Nōrūz (New Year) in
the spring, dedicated to Rapithwin (the time of the midday meal), is at
the same time a solemn and joyful celebration of new life in nature and
the anticipated resurrection of the body when the world will be restored
to its original and intended goodness—after the defeat of Ahriman (the
spirit of evil and chaos) and his demons.
Nature and significance » Times of seasonal changes » The significance
of seasonal renewal in ancient Egypt
Seasonal-renewal motifs in ancient Egypt were often incorporated into
other aspects of sacred times—such as times of passage rites (e.g.,
ascension of the pharaoh to the throne), of death rites (e.g., the
transformation of the dead person into a glorified person), and of
commemorating certain historical events (e.g., military victories in
which the pharaoh preserved maʿat—i.e., order, truth, and justice—which
was active in the realms of nature and society).
In Egypt during the 5th millennium bc, astronomers in the Nile Delta
region associated the annual inundation of the river—which covered wide
areas with fertile soil—with celestial movements, especially that of the
star Sirius (i.e., Sothis) and the sun. From such observations the
Egyptians developed a solar calendar of 365 days, with 12 months of 30
days each and five festival days at the end of the year. Though priests
assumed important functions at the festivals centred about the fertility
of the soil irrigated by the Nile and the life-giving warmth of the sun,
the pharaoh, the sacred king, embodied the continuity between the realm
of the sacred (i.e., the transcendent sphere) and the realm of the
profane (i.e., the sphere of time, space, and cause and effect). The
pharaoh was believed to be the son of the sun god Horus of the Horizon
(Harakhte), symbolized by the falcon; the sun god was also known as Re,
among other names. The eastern horizon was viewed as the meeting point
of the underworld of the dead and the world of the living. The sun god
also was known as Atum, which means “to be at the end,” or the west.
Osiris, the god of the afterlife (the world of the dead) was believed to
be embodied in the recently deceased pharaoh, who passed on his sacred
powers and position to the new pharaoh, his son. At the śd festival, the
new pharaoh, as the son of Horus and of Re, as well as of Osiris, was
invested with both kingly and priestly powers. At his coronation
festival the pharaoh was believed to gain the power to restore maʿat
after the death of the previous pharaoh, and also to restore economic
prosperity.
During the royal festivals—i.e., ascension to the throne, the
coronation, and the śd festival—feasting presumably occurred. Festivals
associated with seasonal renewal, however, involved sacrifices, eating,
drinking, and sometimes dramatic or carnival-like events. Some scholars
hold that the Egyptian terms for festival, however, contain concepts
that became extremely significant in later Hellenistic (Greco-Roman)
religions—e.g., the mystery, or salvatory, religions, such as those of
Mithra, Isis, and the Eleusinian mysteries—and Semitic-based
religions—e.g., Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. According to this view
Egyptian terms for festival, such as ḥb, ḫʿ, and pr.t, all contain
concepts of resurrection and epiphany (i.e., the manifestation of a
god). In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, for example, the festival of the
Epiphany (January 6) celebrates Christ’s manifestation to the Magi of
the East (presumably followers of Zoroaster, a 6th-century bc Iranian
prophet) and his Baptism in the Jordan River. The usual Greek
designation for Epiphany is “the day of the light” (hē hēmera tou
phōtou), in reference to the words in the Bible, in John 1:4, that Jesus
is the “light of men.” Under the influence of the Christian Catechetical
school at Alexandria (led by Clement and Origen in the 2nd and 3rd
centuries ad), the earlier religious speculations of the Egyptians
concerning their festivals were enhanced by further mystical and
spiritual interpretations that affected Christian worship, piety,
doctrine, and iconography, especially in Eastern Christianity.
The Egyptians celebrated many festivals that were connected with
seasonal renewal, some of which became elaborated into sacred times of
cosmic significance. Among their more popular festivals were those
dedicated to Osiris, Amon-Re (the sun god), Horus, and Hathor (the sky
goddess, represented by a cow).
Of special interest is the festival dedicated to Min, celebrated
during the harvest month of Shemou (April). A statue of Min, represented
as an ithyphallic god of fertility in iconography, was placed on an
inclined pedestal, which was the symbol of maʿat. This pedestal
represented the primordial mountain, a symbol of resurrection, renewal,
and rebirth. During the processional honoring Min, hymns were sung and
ritual dances and perhaps other types of dances were performed. The
pharaoh and his queen entered the shrine and presumably enacted a sacred
marriage rite. After the pharaoh’s enthronement at the harvest Festival
of Min, four arrows were shot toward the north, east, south, and west;
and birds also were released in the directions of the four cardinal
points of the compass. The releasing of the birds and arrows announced
the harmonious union of man—both as an individual and as a corporate
being—with the divine powers of nature inherent in the pharaoh as “Horus
son of Min and Osiris.” Though the pharaoh was symbolically significant
in the feasts and festivals of ancient Egypt, the priests of the various
cults officiated in the rituals and sacrifices to the many gods and
announced the proper times for the differing forms of celebrations.
Nature and significance » Times of seasonal changes » The significance
of seasonal renewal in ancient Mesopotamia
In ancient Mesopotamia, in Babylon, where the king was viewed not as the
son of a god but as a god’s agent, or representative, on earth, the New
Year’s festival (Akitu), in the spring month of Nisan, contained not
only seasonal renewal motifs but also themes centring on the renewal of
man and his community. The Enuma elish, the epic of creation, was read
at the festival in order to remind the participants that cosmos (order)
arose out of chaos by means of a struggle between Marduk, the god of
heaven, and Tiamat, the goddess of the deep and the powers of chaos. The
New Year’s festival was sometimes celebrated over a period of 10 to 12
days in Babylon. On the fifth day, a sheep was beheaded; the body of the
sheep was thrown into the river, and the head was taken into the
wilderness. This ritual act, in which an exorcist (mashmashu)—one who
casts out demonic powers—participated, symbolized the ridding of the
community of the powers of chaos. (It was similar to the scapegoat
ritual of the ancient Hebrews, in which the sins of the community were
ceremonially transferred to a goat, which was later led to a wilderness
area to wander about far from the community.)
Before sunrise of the third day following the scapegoat ceremony, the
Babylonian king, as the representative of a sinful people as well as the
agent of the god, had to submit to ritual acts of humiliation: his
symbols of power were removed, and the priest (urigallu) hit him in the
face and enjoined him to pray for the forgiveness of his sins and the
sins of his people. After a profession of innocence, the priest absolved
the king, restored his regal insignia, and performed ceremonies with the
king to ensure the continuous support of the powers of order in nature.
During the three days between the sacrifice of the sheep and the
reinvestiture of the king, the populace of the city engaged in chaotic
activities, perhaps of a carnival-like nature, to symbolize the presence
of chaos in nature and society during this period of the apparent
absence of the king and the god. When the king reappeared to his people,
with his royal symbols of office and in the presence of the statue of
Marduk, a procession of statues of the various gods together with their
adoring devotees then took place, leading to a sanctuary (bītakītu)
outside the city. On the 10th day, a banquet involving the king,
priests, temple functionaries, and the gods was held to celebrate the
renewal of nature, man, and society.
Nature and significance » Times of seasonal changes » The significance
of seasonal renewal in areas of other religions
Among the pre-Columbian Maya, the first month (uinal), Pop, of the New
Year—which would be July in the presently used calendar—became a time
for several renewal ceremonies. Old pottery and fibre mats were
destroyed, and new clothes were put on. The temple was renovated to meet
the needs of the god that was especially venerated during a particular
year (the annual god changed from year to year). New wooden and clay
idols were made, and the portals and implements of the temple were
reconsecrated with blue paint, the sacred colour. The god of the year
entered the sacred precincts according to the cardinal point of the
compass that he represented (and thus there were only four New Year’s
gods). The purpose of the processional rite was to ward off the forces
of evil that might prevail against the people of the area. Dances by old
women and sacrifices of live dogs (by throwing them down from the temple
pyramid) were some of the activities that occurred during the Maya New
Year’s festival.
In Japan, among those engaged in agriculture, the ta-asobi
(“rice-field ritual”) festival is celebrated at the beginning of the
year to ensure a plentiful harvest. Dances, songs sung with a sasara
(musical instrument), sowing of seeds, and feasting play important roles
in securing the aid of the kami (gods or spirits). Divination by means
of archery, in which the angle of the arrow on the target is
significant, has been used in shrines to help determine the methods that
should be used in securing a good crop. In Hinduism, the
Makara-Saṃkrānti, a New Year’s festival in the month of Māgha
(January–February), is celebrated with a fair that continues for a
month’s duration, with much rejoicing. The Śrī Pañcamī, a festival
(utsava) of seasonal renewal on the fifth day of Māgha, symbolizes the
ripening of crops. Feasts and festivals centring on seasonal renewal can
be found among all peoples of the world, both past and present. Rogation
festivities (Days of Asking), originally held by the ancient Romans to
counteract the effectiveness of the deity (Robigus) of red mildew on
wheat, were reinterpreted by early medieval Christians of the West from
the 5th century on as litanies for the blessing of the seed. Rogation
Day, the fifth Sunday after Easter, is still practiced in the 20th
century in rural Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches.
Nature and significance » Other sacred times » Crucial stages of life
Birth, puberty, marriage, and death have been times of sacred
significance for peoples of all cultures from time immemorial. They
signify changes in the status of a person’s being in terms of a person’s
relationship with fellow members of his or her society and the realm of
the sacred or holy that informs the person of the practical and symbolic
ramifications of the new status. These times of change, therefore, have
become occasions for feasts and festivals. Some are very elaborate and
of long duration; others, especially under the influence of modern
secularization, have been abruptly shortened or eliminated.
Birth, a most sacred time in the religions of the world, is
celebrated by rites and festivities that appear to be incongruous or
inconsistent in many religions. Mothers of newborn children are
considered both as participants of the sacred by having brought forth a
new being into the world and as persons who are ritually unclean (e.g.,
among the Israelites and Zoroastrians), probably because of the presence
of blood at birth, the loss of which may symbolize the loss of some of
the life-sustaining force. Among Brazilian Indians, however, both the
father and the mother participate in a ceremony of seclusion for five
days (eating only certain foods) in order to protect the sacredness and
health of the new mother and child. Seclusion, thus, need not be
interpreted negatively. Among the Kikuyu of eastern Africa, seclusion is
a symbol of death and resurrection. The mother and child symbolically
die and rise again during and after a ceremony of seclusion, after which
a feast is held in which a goat is sacrificed and prayers are said. The
whole community rejoices that a new child has become a part of human
society.
The Christian celebration of birth culminates in the sacrament of
Baptism, a symbol of the death of the old person and the rebirth of the
new person in Christ. As such, it is a rite of purification, using water
and the words of institution by Christ. After the sacrament has been
solemnized, Christians in many areas have engaged in much feasting to
emphasize the joy inherent in the “new birth.”
Among the ancient pre-Christian Norsemen, baptism by means of water
was believed to impart divine and eternal life to men and even to
preserve men from death—so that they “will not perish in war” nor “fall
before any sword.” Thus, when St. Boniface baptized members of Germanic
tribes in the 8th century, he was ordered by Pope Gregory III to do so
only according to the formula “in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Because whole tribes became Christian en
masse during this period, the feasts celebrating the incorporation of
the tribe into the church often lasted for several days and included
folk customs of which the church did not especially approve, such as
those connected with merrymaking (e.g., the drinking of mead).
Puberty, the transition into adulthood, has been celebrated since
ancient times by various rituals and festivals. In the secular sphere,
it is celebrated in democratic countries by the granting of the right to
vote to persons upon the attainment of a certain age. In ancient Greece,
young men of the ages of 16 or 17 were admitted as full members of the
city-state; but before they were granted voting privileges, they had to
swear allegiance to the religion of the city; this made them religious
citizens and subsequently adults. After he had attained adulthood, a
young Greek could participate in military service and could marry. In
the United States in the early 1970s, citizens having attained the age
of 18 were granted the right to vote; but the ceremony commemorating
this right has been a secularized de-emphasis of this important rite of
passage: the mere signing of one’s name on a registration certificate.
Puberty rites are celebrated in various ways according to the
prevailing religious and social customs. Among the Masai of eastern
Africa, youths pass from childhood to adulthood by the rite of
circumcision. After various preliminary activities, the boys (12 to 16
years of age) are circumcised and the blood released from the operation
is later placed on their heads. After four days of seclusion and a
period during which they are dressed in female attire, their heads are
shaved and they attain the status of adults and thus can become
warriors. Girls attain adulthood by means of similar practices: the
cutting or piercing of sexual organs. Among the Kamba of eastern Africa,
who perform similar puberty rites of passage, those initiated into
adulthood are given presents, and offerings are made to the ancestors. A
significant aspect of the festival celebrating the rite of passing from
childhood to adulthood is the return from seclusion; this return to
their communities symbolizes a type of resurrection and renewal as new
persons—adults.
Among the churches of the 16th-century Reformation, the rite of
confirmation in the Anglican and Lutheran churches has been a type of
puberty rite. The child, who had been a baptized member of the church,
became, in effect, an adult, assuming personal responsibility and the
privilege of participating in the Eucharist. In the early 1970s,
however, the instructional aspect of confirmation—important in almost
all pre-puberty practices—has been diminished, especially in some
Lutheran churches in the United States, thus de-emphasizing the
importance of confirmation as a rite of passage. As the church has
become increasingly influenced by secularization processes in the 20th
century, the customary feasting to celebrate the rite of confirmation
has decreased in practice.
Marriage, the rite of passage from the single to the united state,
has been celebrated with many forms of feasts and festivals. Connected
with the hieros gamos (“sacred marriage”) of the Mesopotamian Akitu (New
Year’s festival), and of the Israelite Sukkoth (Feast of
Tabernacles)—during the month of Tishri (the first month of the
year)—which had both sexual and covenantal overtones, the rite of
marriage developed into a legal and religious act in Judaism and into a
sacrament in Roman Catholic and Eastern Christianity. In most religions
the married state is considered superior to the single, though tensions
between these two states of existence exist in most religions. Monks and
nuns who vow to live in a celibate state often celebrate a symbolic
marriage to the founder of their religion (e.g., to Christ) or to a
religious institution (e.g., the church). In the Talmud, a compendium of
Jewish law, lore, and commentary, the statement is made that “He who
does not marry is like a murderer and he mutilates (violates) the image
of God.” In the Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism, a similar
statement is made: “The man who is married stands above him who is not
married.” Thus, the wedding has become the most significant domestic
festival in both the secular and religious realms, in spite of the
ascetic tendencies that exist in certain sectors of Christianity,
Buddhism, and other religions. The wedding ceremony has often been
accompanied by feasting and gift-giving to express the concern of the
community for a successful participation within the community and an
extension of the community through the procreation of children. Among
African religions, marriage as a rite of passage is incomplete if
procreation is avoided or not accomplished. After a wedding among the
Batoro of Uganda in Africa, dancing and feasting last until the
following morning. Later on, gifts are given to the bride’s family in
order to show gratitude, to compensate for her absence, and to legalize
the marriage agreement.
The final rite of passage, death, has brought about numerous festival
customs, all the way from the ritual sacrifice of the widow in Hinduism
(until the 19th century) to the commercialization of death rites in
Western societies. Just as the early Hebrews believed that life passes
on to death when the breath (ruaḥ) leaves the body, so also do Eskimos
in the 20th century believe that death occurs when breath (soul) leaves
the body and that death may be a moment when one is translated into
another form of life. Among the ancient Greeks, Thanatos (death) is the
twin brother of Hypnos (sleep), and from this conceptional relationship
may come the view that death is merely a sleeping state in the passage
from this life to an afterlife. Festivities surrounding rites include
the customs of playing mournful (and, sometimes, joyful) music, speaking
eulogies, performing sacramental acts (e.g., extreme unction in the
Roman Catholic Church), performing elaborate or simple embalming
practices (e.g., the lengthy procedural techniques of the ancient
Egyptians and the rapid techniques of modern morticians), utilizing
appropriate and expected bodily gestures and vocal expressions, and
feasts of varied elaborateness, depending on the economic or social
circumstances of the deceased or his next of kin. Flowers often play
important roles in the festivities connected with death rites. In the
20th century, a change from mourning to joyful expectation has occurred
in the funeral rites of some Christian churches. Among some African
tribes, such as the Ndebele of Zimbabwe, funeral processions,
sacrifices, ceremonial washings, and protective medicine are included in
the festivities that symbolically celebrate man’s conquest over death
(see also rite of passage ).
Nature and significance » Other sacred times » Times of commemoration
and remembrance
Festivals of commemoration are among the most important of the sacred
times. Some festivals commemorate important events in mythology or the
birth, inauguration, or victory of a founder of a religion, a god, or a
hero. In Hinduism, for example, the Vaikuṇṭha-ekādaśī festival in
December–January commemorates the victory of the goddess Ekādaśī Devī in
her killing of a demon; and the Gaṇeśacturthī commemorates the birthday
of Gaṇeśa, the elephant-headed god of fortune. Another major Hindu
festival, Navarātri, commemorates the victory of the goddess Durgā over
the buffalo-headed demon Mahiṣa; and Rāma-navamī commemorates the birth
of Rāma, the hero of the Rāmāyana, one of India’s great epics. In
Chinese Buddhism, the birthdays of Kuan-yin (or Avalokiteśvara),
Amitābha, and Śākyamuni (the first two being bodhisattvas, or
buddhas-to-be, and the last being the Buddha himself) were celebrated
before the 1950s with much ceremony. The nativity of Christ (or
Christmas) is the most widely celebrated “birthday” of a divine being,
though in the 20th century Christmas has been subjected to a wide
variety of secular influences.
Types and kinds of feasts and festivals » National and local festivals
Feasts and festivals vary greatly in type. Though most are religious in
background and character, other types have flourished in both ancient
and modern civilizations. Included among such types are social and
cultural festivals: e.g., New Year’s Day in the 20th century,
sword-dance festivals in Scotland, the Olympic festivals in ancient
Greece and the modern world, the Great Dionysia of ancient Greece during
which dramatic contests took place, and May Day celebrations. National
festivals in the United States include Thanksgiving Day (in November),
which commemorates colonial celebrations following successful harvests;
Independence Day (July 4), which commemorates the Declaration of
Independence of the American colonies from the British crown; St.
Patrick’s Day (March 17), celebrated mainly in Chicago and New York City
as a secular–religious feast; Mother’s Day (in May); Memorial Day (in
May), commemorating those who have died, especially in war; and Flag Day
(June 14). National or local festivals in other countries include:
Bastille Day (July 14), commemorating the beginning of the French
Revolution in 1789; Dominion Day (July 1) in Canada; and independence
days in many countries. Birthdays of national founders or heroes are
also types of commemorative festivals. In some Protestant countries,
Reformation Day has assumed the position of a holiday either nationally
or locally. In Israel, Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the
systematic destruction of European Jews by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and
’40s.
Types and kinds of feasts and festivals » Secular modernist festivals
Secular modernist festivals are often mixed with previous religious
festivals. May Day, once mainly a springtime fertility festival that can
be traced back to the Magna Mater (Great Mother) festivals of
Hellenistic (Greco-Roman) times, has become a festival of the labouring
class in Socialist countries. Football games in the United States have
all the external trappings of religious festivals. A person from a
preliterate culture would see a large congregation witnessing a ritual
combat, conducted according to precise ritualistic rules. The
participants are dressed in appropriate identifiable costumes as they
engage in their ritual combat—one side representing evil and the other
good, depending upon the viewpoint of the audience. Leading the
congregation are priestesses (cheerleaders) dressed in appropriate garb,
participating in ritualistic dances, and chanting supposedly efficacious
formulas. Operating on the principle of sympathetic magic, the
priestesses attempt to transfer the crowd’s enthusiasm to the
appropriate combatants. In Western countries, according to some critics,
lay participation in congregational worship has for a long time been
little more than a spectator sport, and this may well have contributed
to the festival character of weekend sports activities.
Types and kinds of feasts and festivals » Carnivals and saturnalias
Some feasts and festivals provide psychological, cathartic, and
therapeutic outlets for persons during periods of seasonal depression.
The Holī festival of Hinduism during February–March was once a fertility
festival. Of early origin, the Holī festival incorporates a pole,
similar to the Maypole of Europe, that may be a phallic symbol. Bonfires
are lit; street dancing, accompanied by loud drums and horns, obscene
gestures, and vocalized obscenities, is allowed; and various objects,
such as coloured powders, are thrown at people.
One of the best-known festivals of ancient Rome was the Saturnalia, a
winter festival celebrated on December 17–24. Because it was a time of
wild merrymaking and domestic celebrations, businesses, schools, and law
courts were closed so that the public could feast, dance, gamble, and
generally enjoy itself to the fullest. December 25—the birthday of
Mithra, the Iranian god of light, and a day devoted to the invincible
sun, as well as the day after the Saturnalia—was adopted by the church
as Christmas, the nativity of Christ, to counteract the effects of these
festivals.
Carnival-like celebrations were held in England on Shrove Tuesday,
the day before the Lenten fast began, until the 19th century.
Originating as a seasonal renewal festival incorporating fertility
motifs, the celebrations included ball games that often turned into
riots between opposing villages. Feasts of pancakes and much drinking
followed the contests. This tradition of merrymaking continues, for
example, in the United States in the Mardi Gras festival on Shrove
Tuesday in Louisiana.
Conclusion
Feasts and festivals, whether religious or secular, national or local,
serve to meet specific social and psychological needs and provide
cohesiveness to social institutions: e.g., church, state, and esoteric
or socially nonaccepted groups. The cohesiveness engendered in the
feasts and festivals of minority groups (e.g., Christians in the early
Roman Empire) often provides these groups with the strength to influence
the institutions of the society and the culture of the majority. When a
particular religion triumphs over other religions, it often incorporates
elements from the feasts and festivals of the previously predominant
religions into its own religious calendar. This has been an important
practice of all the world religions in their attempts to bring about
social solidarity, order, and tranquility. Similarly, individuals can
gain a sense of psychological cohesiveness through participation in
feasts and festivals.
During periods of crisis in society, feasts and festivals may lose
some of the impact of their interpretive and cohesive functions. The
sacraments of the medieval Western Church lost some of their earlier
interpretive values in the 16th century during the Reformation, and the
month of fasting before the Feast of Bēma (“judge’s seat”)—a festival
commemorating the death of Mani, a 3rd-century-ad Iranian prophet who
founded the syncretistic Manichaean religion—probably became the
prototype of the Muslim fast month of Ramaḍān after Islamic invasions of
the 7th century ad. So also can persons living in the 20th century
expect reinterpretations of the feasts and festivals to which they have
become accustomed. Reinterpretations of feasts and festivals may thus
provide impulses for institutional changes, which generally occur in
times of crisis and transition.
Linwood Fredericksen
