or FESTIVAL, in a religious sense, is a ceremony of feasting and thanksgiving. The word is formed of the Latin festum, which some derive a ferturio, "to keep holiday;" others from the Greek ἐστία, "I feast or entertain;" of ἐστία, "hearth, fire."
Feasts, and the ceremonies thereof, have made great part of the religion of almost all nations and sects; witness those of the Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, Christians, and Mahometans.
The first feasts among the Greeks were celebrated in solemn assemblies of the whole nation, on occasion of their games, as the Olympic, the Pythian, the Isthmian, and Nemean: 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; such were the Saturnalia, Cerealia, Lupercalia, Liberalia, Neptunalia, Consualia, Portunalia, Vulcanalia, Palilia, Divalia, &c. See SATURNALIA, &c.
They had also feasts instituted occasionally; as Carmentalia, Feast mentalia, Quirinalia, Terminalia, Floralia, Compitalia, Lemuria, Vernalia, before other moveable and occasional ones; as to give thanks to the gods for benefits received; to implore their assistance, or to appease their wrath, &c., as the Paganalia, Ferialia, Bacchanalia, Amburvalia, Amburbalia, Suovetaurilia, and divers others, particularly denominated feriae, as Sementina, Latineae, &c. See each of these feasts, and feriae in its proper place. The feasts were divided into days of sacrifice, and days of banqueting and feasting; days of games, and days of rest or feriae.
There being but little history written, or at least published in those days, one end of feasts was to keep up the remembrance of past occurrences.
The principal feasts of the Jews were the feast of trumpets, that of the expiation, of tabernacles, of the dedication, of the passover, of pentecost, and that of purification. See Expiation, &c.
The modern Jews have other feasts marked in their kalendar, of modern institution. The Mahometans, besides their weekly feast or Sabbath, which is kept 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 called Bairam. The Chinese have two solemn feasts in the year, in the memory of Confucius, besides others of less note on the other days of the year.
Feasts among us are either immovable or moveable.
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, St Thomas, St Paul, &c. which with us are feasts, though not feriae. See each feast under its proper article.
Moveable Feasts are those which are not confined to the same day of the year. Of these the principal is Easter, which gives law to all the rest, all of them following, and keeping their proper distances from it; such as Palm-Sunday, Good-Friday, Ash-Wednesday, Sexagesima, Ascension Day, Pentecost, and Trinity-Sunday. See Easter, Sexagesima, Pentecost, Trinity, &c.
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, held 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: on which quarterly days rent on leaves is usually referred to be paid (5 and 6 Edw. VI. ca. 3. 3 Jac. I. cap. 1. 12 Car. II. cap. 30.).
Besides these feasts, which are general, and enjoined by the church, there are others local and occasional, enjoined by the magistrates, or voluntarily set on foot by the people; such are the days of thanksgiving for delivery from wars, plagues, &c. Such also are the vigils or wakes in commemoration of the dedications of particular churches. See Vigil, &c.
The prodigious increase of feast days in the Christian church commenced towards the close of the fourth century, and was occasioned by the discovery that was then made of the remains of martyrs and other holy men, for the commemoration of whom they were established. These, instead of being set apart for pious exercises, were abused in indolence, voluptuousness, and criminal practices. Many of them were instituted on a pagan model, and perverted to similar purposes.
Feast of Death, or Feast of Souls, a solemn religious ceremony in use among the savages of America; some of whom thus testify their respect for the deceased every eight years; and others, as the Hurons and Iroquois, every ten years.
The day of this ceremony is appointed by public order; and nothing is omitted, that it may be celebrated with the utmost pomp and magnificence. The neighbouring tribes are invited to be present, and to join in the solemnity. At this time all who have died since the last solemn occasion are taken out of their graves; those who have been interred at the greatest distance from the villages are diligently sought for, and brought to this great rendezvous of carcases.
It is not difficult to conceive the horror of this general disinterment; but it cannot be described in a more lively manner than it is done by Lafitau, to whom we are indebted for the most authentic account of those nations.
"Without question (says he), the opening of these tombs displays one of the most striking scenes that can be conceived; this humbling portrait of human misery, in so many images of death, wherein the seems to take a pleasure to paint herself in a thousand various shapes of horror, in the several carcases, according to the degree in which corruption has prevailed over them, or the manner in which it has attacked them. Some appear dry and withered; others have a sort of parchment upon their bones; some look as if they were baked and smoked, without any appearance of rottenness; some are just turning towards the point of putrefaction; whilst others are all swarming with worms, and drowned in corruption. I know not which ought to strike us most, the horror of so shocking a sight, or the tender piety and affection of these poor people toward their departed friends: for nothing deserves our admiration more than that eager diligence and attention with which they discharge this melancholy duty of their tenderness; gathering up carefully even the smallest bones, handling the carcases, disagreeable as they are, with every thing loathsome, cleansing them from the worms, and carrying them upon their shoulders through tireless journeys of several days, without being discouraged from the offensiveness of the smell, and without suffering any other emotions to arise than those of regret, for having lost persons who were so dear to them in their lives, and so lamented in their death.
"They bring them into their cottages, where they prepare a feast in honour of the dead; during which their great actions are celebrated, and all the tender intercourses which took place between them and their friends are piously called to mind. The strangers, who have come sometimes many hundred miles to be present on the occasion, join in the tender condolence; and the women, by frightful shrieks, demonstrate that they are pierced with the sharpest sorrow. Then the dead bodies are carried from the cabins for the general re-interment. A great pit is dug in the ground, and thither, thither, at a certain time, each person attended by his family and friends, marches in solemn silence, bearing the dead body of a son, a father, or a brother. When they are all convened, the dead bodies, or the dust of those which were quite corrupted, are deposited in the pit; then the torrent of grief breaks out anew. Whatever they possess most valuable is interred with the dead. The strangers are not wanting in their generosity, and confer those presents which they have brought along with them for the purpose. Then all present go down into the pit, and every one takes a little of the earth, which they afterwards preserve with the most religious care. The bodies, ranged in order, are covered with entire new furs, and over these with bark, on which they throw stones, wood, and earth. Then taking their last farewell, they return each to his own cabin.
"We have mentioned, that in this ceremony the savages offer, as presents to the dead, whatever they value most highly. This custom, which is universal among them, arises from a rude notion of the immortality of the soul. They believe this doctrine most firmly, and it is the principal tenet of their religion. When the soul is separated from the body of their friends, they conceive that it still continues to hover around it, and require and take delight in the same things with which it formerly was pleased. After a certain time, however, it forsakes this dreary mansion, and departs far westward into the land of spirits. They have even gone so far as to make a distinction between the inhabitants of the other world; some, they imagine, particularly those who in their lifetime have been fortunate in war, possess a high degree of happiness, have a place for hunting and fishing, which never fails, and enjoy all sensual delights, without labouring hard in order to procure them. The souls of those, on the contrary, who happen to be conquered or slain in war, are extremely miserable after death."
Feast is also used for a banquet, or a sumptuous meal, without any immediate view to religion.
The use of the word, in this sense, arises hence; that a part of the ceremony of many of the ancient festivals, both those of the heathens and the agape of the Christians, was good eating; though Mr Huet chooses to derive the word from festinare, which, in an ancient Latin version of Origen's Comment on Matthew, signifies "to feast." Ut veniens illuc Jesus festinet, cum discipulis suis.
Social or civil feasts were also expressed by the words convivium and compositio or concinnatio. Cicero says, that in the Roman tongue, the word convivium, which means "people assembled at table," is more significant than the Greek word compositio or concinnatio; the Roman, says he, expresses the conjunction of body and mind which ought to take place at an entertainment; the Greek denotes what relates to the body alone.
As food is necessary to our existence, it makes a bond of association among mankind. People at a feast, says one of the ancients, seem to form but one body, one soul. All nations, whether savage or civilized, have regarded the pleasure 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 that 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; here they forget the evils of life; they extinguish their hatred, and make their enmities cease. For this reason Aristotle considers as a breach of the social principle that custom of the Egyptians of eating apart, 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 make alliances, to name 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 artful people during the conviviality of the feast spoke without disguise. Next day they weighed the counsels of the former evening; they deliberated at a time when they were not disposed to feign, and took their resolution when they were least liable to be deceived.
People of rank among the Rhodians, by a fundamental law of the state, were obliged to dine daily with those who had 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 use to the state.
Among the Romans, the place where they supped was generally the vestibule, that a more retired part of the house might not encourage licentiousness and disorder. There were several laws that restricted their meals to those vestibules.
When luxury reigned at Rome, they had superb halls for their entertainments. Lucullus had many, each of which bore the name of some deity; and this name 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 50,000 drachmas.
The hall in which Nero feasted, by the circular motion of its walls and ceiling, imitated the revolutions of the heavens, and represented the different seasons of the year, changing at every course, and showering down flowers and perfumes on the guests.
The Romans did not, as we do, use but one table at their feasts; they had generally two; the first was for the services of animal food, which was afterwards removed, and another introduced with fruits; at this last they sung, and poured out their libations. The Greeks and eastern nations had 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; they were varnished with purple and gold, and were raised on feet of carved ivory. It is said that they were more precious than gold. Dion Cassius affirms that Seneca had 500 of these, which he made use of one after another; and Tertullian tells us that Cicero had but one. The Romans chose the king of the feast by a throw of the dice. We learn from Herodotus, that the ancients had neither cups nor bowls, but that they drank out of little horns tipped with silver or gold.
Under the reign of Charles V. of France, the custom of placing the lights upon the table was not yet introduced. A number of domestics held the candles in their hands during the whole time of the repast.
The Greeks and Romans kept a domestic for the purpose of reading during their meals and feasts. Sometimes the chief of the family himself performed the office of reader; and history informs us, that the emperor Severus often read while his family ate. The time of reading was generally at supper; and guests were invited to a reading as they are now a-days to play cards.
The Greeks, in their flourishing times, did not profane, according to their own expression, the holiness of the table; but rather adorned it with ingenious and elegant conversation: they proposed moral topics, of which Plutarch has preserved a collection.
Ancient philosophers remark, that heroes rarely assembled convivially without bringing affairs of consequence into discourse, or deliberating upon those that regarded either present events or future contingencies.
The Scythians, while at meat, used to make the strings of their bows resound, lest their warlike virtues might be enfeebled or lost in this season of pleasure.
When Rome was corrupted with luxury, singers, dancers, musicians, stage-players, and people that 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 22,000 tables; and by calculation it would seem that there were at these tables upwards of 200,000 persons.
At the end of the feast the Romans drunk out of a large cup as often as there were letters in the name of their mistresses.
Feasting seems to have been the chief delight of the Germans, Gauls, Britons, and all the other Celtic nations; in which they indulged themselves to the utmost, as often as they had an opportunity. "Among 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 birthday, 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 greatest retinue. These feasts (in which plenty was more regarded than elegance) lasted commonly several days, and the guests seldom retired until they had consumed all the provisions and exhausted all the liquors. Athenaeus describes an entertainment that was given by Arcamnes, a very wealthy prince in 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, when their spirits were exhilarated with the pleasures of the table. The conversation at these entertainments very frequently turned on the great exploits which the guests themselves or their ancestors had performed in war; which sometimes occasioned quarrels and even bloodshed. It was at a feast that the two illustrious British princes, Cairbar and Oscar, quarrelled about their own bravery and that of their ancestors, and fell by mutual wounds, (Offian, vol. ii. p. 8, &c.).
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 in the same circumstances. This continued to be a favourite beverage among 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 of the physician. The following 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: 1. Every sentence of the judge; 2. Every new song; and, 3. Every cask of mead."
This was perhaps the liquor which is called by Offian 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 people on the continent (see Ale). If the Phoenicians or Greeks imported any wine into Britain, it was only in very small quantities; that most generous liquor being very little known in this island before it was conquered by the Romans. The drinking vessels of the Gauls, Britons, and other Celtic nations, were, for the most part, made of the horns of oxen and other animals; but those of the Caledonians consisted of large shells, which are still used by some of their posterity in the Highlands of Scotland.
The dishes in which the meat was served up were either of wood or earthen ware, or a kind of baskets made of oaks. These last were most used by the Britons, as they very much excelled in the art of making them both for their own use and for exportation. The guests sat in a circle upon the ground, with a little hay, grass, or the skin of some animal under them. A low table or stool was set before each person, with the portion of meat allotted to him upon it. In this distribution, they never neglected to set the largest and best pieces before those who were most distinguished for their rank, their exploits, or their riches. Every guest took the meat set before him in his hands, and tearing it with his teeth, fed upon it in the best manner he could. If any one found difficulty in separating any part of his meat with his hands and teeth, he made use of a large knife, that lay in a particular place for the benefit of the whole company. Servants, or young boys and girls, the children of the family, stood behind the guests, ready to help them to drink or anything they wanted. As the ancient Britons greatly excelled and very much delighted in music, all their feasts were accompanied with the joys of song, and the music of harps. In the words of Ossian, "whenever the feast of thills is prepared, the songs of bards arise. The voice of sprightly mirth is heard. The trembling harps of joy are strung. They sing the battles of heroes, or the heaving breasts of love." Some of the poems of that illustrious British bard appear to have been composed in order to be sung by the hundred bards of Fingal at the feast of Selma. Many of the songs of the bards which were sung and played at the feasts of the ancient Britons, were of a grave and solemn strain, celebrating the brave actions of the guests, or of the heroes of other times; but these were sometimes intermixed with more sprightly and cheerful airs, to which the youth of both sexes danced, for the entertainment of the company.
It has been often observed by authors, that there is no nation in the world comes near the English in the magnificence of their feasts. Those made at our coronations, installments, consecrations, &c., transcend the belief of all foreigners; and yet it is doubted whether those now in use are comparable to those of our forefathers.
William the Conqueror, after he was peaceably settled on the throne of England, sent agents into different countries, to collect the most admired and rare dishes for his table; by which means, says John of Salisbury, this island, which is naturally productive of plenty and variety of provisions, was overflowed with every thing that could inflame a luxurious appetite. The same writer tells us, that he was present at an entertainment which lasted from three o'clock in the afternoon to midnight; at which delicacies were served up, which had been brought from Constantinople, Babylon, Alexandria, Palestine, Tripoli, Syria, and Phoenicia. These delicacies, we may presume, were very expensive. Thomas Becket, if we may believe his historian, Fitz-Stephen, gave £1, equivalent to £3L at present, for one dish of eels. The sumptuous entertainments which the kings of England, and of other countries, gave to their nobles and prelates, at the festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whituntide, in which they spent a great part of their revenues, contributed very much to diffuse a taste for profuse and expensive banqueting. It was natural for a proud and wealthy baron to imitate in his own castle the entertainments he had seen in the palace of his prince. Many of the clergy too, both seculars and regulars, being very rich, kept excellent tables. The monks of St Swithins, at Winchester, made a formal complaint to Henry II. against their abbot, for taking away three of the 13 dishes they used to have every day at dinner. The monks of Canterbury were still more luxurious; for they had at least 17 dishes every day, besides a dessert; and these dishes were dressed with spices and sauces; which excited the appetite as well as pleased the taste.
Great men had some kinds of provisions at their tables that are not now to be found in Britain. When Henry II. entertained his own court, the great officers of his army, with all the kings and great men of Ireland, in Dublin, at the feast of Christmas A.D. 1171, the Irish princes and chieftains were quite astonished at the profusion and variety of provisions which they beheld, and were with difficulty prevailed upon by Henry to eat the flesh of cranes, a kind of food to which they had not been accustomed. In the remaining monuments of this period, we meet with the names of several dishes, as dellegroult, maupigynrun, karumpie, &c., the composition of which is now unknown.
The coronation feast of Edward III. cost £2835. 18s. 2d., equivalent to about 40,000l. of our money. At the installation of Ralph abbot of St Augustine, Canterbury, A.D. 1309, 6000 guests were entertained with a dinner, consisting of 3000 dishes, which cost £2871. 5s. equal in efficacy to £4302l. in our times. "It would require a long treatise (says Matthew Paris) to describe the astonishing splendour, magnificence, and festivity with which the nuptials of Richard earl of Cornwall, and Cincia daughter of Raymond earl of Provence, were celebrated at London, A.D. 1243. To give the reader some idea of it, in a few words, above 30,000 dishes were served up at the marriage dinner." The nuptials of Alexander III. of Scotland, and the princess Margaret of England, were solemnized at York, A.D. 1251, with still greater pomp and profusion. "If I attempted (says the same historian) to display all the grandeur of this solemnity,—the numbers of the noble and illustrious guests,—the richness and variety of the dresses,—the tumultuousness of the feasts,—the multitudes of the minstrels, mimicks, and others whose buffoons it was to amuse and divert the company, those of my readers who were not present would imagine that I was imposing upon their credulity." The following particular will enable them to form a judgment of the whole. The archbishop of York made the king of England a present of 60 fat oxen, which made only one article of provision for the marriage feast, and were all consumed at that entertainment.
The marriage feast of Henry IV. and his queen Jane of Navarre, consisted of six courses; three of flesh and fowls, and three of fish. All these courses were accompanied and adorned with suttleties, as they were called. These suttleties were figures in patery, of men, women, beasts, birds, &c., placed on the table to be admired, but not touched. Each figure had a label affixed to it; containing some wise or witty saying, suited to the occasion of the feast, which was the reason they were called suttleties. The installation feast of George Neville, archbishop of York and chancellor of England, exceeded all others in splendour and expense, and in the number and quality of the guests. The reader may form some idea of this enormous feast from the following list of provisions prepared for it. In wheat, quarters, 300; in ale, tuns, 300; in wine, tuns, 100; in operatifs, pipes, 1; in oxen, 104; in wild bulls, 6; in muttons, 1000; in veals, 304; in porkes, 304; in swannes, 400; in geese, 2000; in cappons, 1000; in pigs, 2000; in plowers, 400; in quails, 1200; in fowls, called rees, 2400; in peacocks, 104; in mallards and teals, 4000; in cranes, 204; in kids, 204; in chickens, 2000; in pigeons, 2000; in connies, 4000; in bitters, 204; in heronshaw, 400; in pheasants, 200; in partridges, 500; in woodcocks, 400; in curlews, 100; in egrets, 1000; in flaggs, bucks, and roes, 500 and more; in pasties Feast, Feather.
of venison, cold, 4000; in parted dishes of jellies, 1000; in plain dishes of jellies, 3000; in cold tarts, baked, 4000; in cold calfards, baked, 3000; in hot pasties of venison, 1500; in hot calfards, 2000; in pikes and breans, 308; in porpoises and seals, 12; spices, sugared delicacies, and waters, plenty. No turkeys are mentioned in this enormous bill of fare, because they were not then known in England. Cranes, heronshaws, porpoises, and seals, are seldom seen at modern entertainments.
One of the most expensive singularities attending the royal feasts in those days consisted in what they called intermeats. These were representations of battles, sieges, &c., introduced between the courses for the amusement of the guests. The French excelled in exhibitions of this kind. At a dinner given by Charles V. of France to the emperor Charles IV. A.D. 1378, the following intermeat was exhibited: A ship with masts, sails, and rigging, was seen first: she had for colours the arms of the city of Jerusalem: Godfrey de Bouillon appeared upon deck, accompanied by several knights armed cap-a-pie: the ship advanced into the middle of the hall, without the machine which moved it being perceptible. Then the city of Jerusalem appeared, with all its towers lined with Saracens. The ship approached the city; the Christians landed, and began the assault; the besieged made a good defence: several scaling ladders were thrown down; but at length the city was taken. Intermeats at ordinary banquets consisted of certain delicate dishes introduced between the courses, and designed rather for gratifying the taste than for satisfying hunger.
At these feasts, besides the ordinary drinks, ale and cider, there were great quantities of wines of various kinds. Of these last, the following lines of a poet who wrote in the fourth century, contain an ample enumeration.
Ye shall have rumney and malespine, Both ypocrasfe and verna wyne; Mountresse and wyn of Greke, Both algrafe and despice eke, Antioche and baftarde, Pyment alfo, and garnarde, Wyn of Greke and Mulcadell, Both clare, pyment, and Rochell.
Some of these liquors, as ypocras, pyment, and claret, were compounded of wine, honey, and spices of different kinds, and in different proportions.