or FESTIVAL, in a religious sense, is a day of feasting and thanksgiving.

Among the ancients, feasts were instituted upon various accounts, but especially in memory of some favourable interposition of Providence. Thus, the Jews had their feast of passover, pentecost, and tabernacles; the Greeks their cerealia, panathenæa, &c. and the Romans their saturnalia, ambivaralia, &c. See PASSOVER, CEREA利亚, &c.

In the ancient Christian church, besides the high festivals of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Annunciation, &c. there were others instituted in honour of the apostles and martyrs: all which are retained by the church of England. See the articles CHRISTMAS, EASTER, &c. In the church of Rome, there are double, half-double, and simple feasts almost without number. The name of double feasts is given to such whose service is fuller and more solemn than the rest, which likewise constitutes the difference between the others; the churches being embellished, and the altars adorned, according to the rank which each saint holds in his respective church. All high festivals have an octave, consisting of the feast itself, and the seven following days.

In Italy, certain festivals are celebrated solely by lovers. When a lover wants to give his mistress the highest testimony of his gallantry, he immediately makes her the idol of his devotion; procuring vespers, and even masses, to be said to her honour. For this purpose he makes choice of the festival of some saint whose name she bears; and though the saint has the same name, they manage matters so, that the devotion of the festival is plainly relative to the lover's mistress.

The four quarterly feasts, or stated times, whereon rent on leases is usually referred to be paid, are Lady-day, or the annunciation of the blessed virgin Mary, or 25th of March; the nativity of St John the Baptist, held on the 24th of June; the feast of St Michael the arch-angel, on the 29th of September; and Christmas, or rather of St Thomas the apostle, on the 21st of December. See ANNUNCIATION, &c.