Feast
FEAST
In a religious sense is a ceremony of feasting and thanksgiving. The principal feasts of the Jews were the feasts of trumpets, of expiation, of tabernacles, or the dedication, of the passover, of Pentecost, and that of purification. Feasts, and the ceremonies thereof, have made great part of the religion of almost all nations and sects; hence the Greeks, the Romans, Mahometans, and Christians, have not been without them. Feasts, among us, are either immoveable or moveable. Immoveable feasts are those constantly celebrated on the same day of the year. The principal of these are Christmas-day, Circumcision, Epiphany, Candlemas or Purification; Lady-day, or the annunciation, called also the incarnation and conception; All Saints and All Souls; besides the days of the several apostles, as St. Thomas, St. Paul. 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 are Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Ash Wednesday, Sexagesima, Ascension-day, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday. Besides these feasts, which are general, and enjoined by the church, there are others focal and occasional, enjoined by the magistrate, or voluntarily set on foot by the people; such are the days of thanksgiving for delivery from war, plagues, &c.; such also are the vigils or wakes in commemoration of the dedication of particular churches. The prodigious increase of feast-days in the Christian church, commenced towards the close of the fourth century, occasioned by the discovery that was 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.
See HOLY DAY.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
feast
Days designated for giving special honor to God, to the Saviour, to saints, and to holy things. Some are fixed festivals, each having a certain day of the year assigned to it. Others are movable, occurring earlier or later in different years. Festivals are also divided into holy days of obligation and ordinary festivals: on the former the faithful are required to assist at Mass and abstain from unnecessary servile work; on ordinary festivals the Church merely observes the feast in her Office and Mass. Festivals are also arranged in three classes, according to their importance: doubles, semidoubles, and simples. Certain days when the Church does not honor any saint are called ferials (feria, a weekday). Some great festivals have octaves, which extend the solemnity of the feast through eight days; and some have vigils, in which the observance of the feast is begun on the preceding day.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Feast
(properly , mishteh’, , when a hospitable entertainment; and , chag, ), when a religious festival). To what an early date the practices of hospitality are referable may be seen in Gen 19:3, where we find Lot inviting the two angels “Turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house and tarry all night, and wash your feet; and he pressed upon them greatly, and they entered into his house; and he made them a feast;”‘ which was obviously of an impromptu nature, since it is added, ” and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat” (Jdg 6:19). It was usual not only thus to receive persons with choice viands, but also to dismiss them in a similar manner; accordingly Laban, when he had overtaken the fleeing Jacob, complains (Gen 31:27), “Wherefore didst thou steal away from me and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, and with tabret, and with harp ?” See also 2Sa 3:20; 2Ki 6:23; Job 8:20; 1Ma 16:15. This practice explains the reason why the prodigal, on his return, was welcomed by a feast (Luk 15:23). Occasions of domestic joy were hailed with feasting; thus, in Gen 21:8, Abraham “made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.” Birthdays were thus celebrated (Gen 40:20): ” Pharaoh, on his birthday, made a feast unto all his servants” (Job 1:4; Mat 14:6; compare Herod. i, 133). Marriage feasts were also common. Samson (Jdg 14:10) on such an occasion “made a feast,” and it is added, ” for so used the young men to do.” So Laban, when he gave his daughter Leah to Jacob (Gen 29:22), ” gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.” These festive occasions seem originally to have answered the important purpose of serving as evidence and attestation of the events which they celebrated, on which account relatives and neighbors were invited to be present (Rth 4:10; Joh 2:1). Those processes in rural occupations by which the divine bounties are gathered into the hands of man have in all ages been made seasons of festivity; accordingly, in 2Sa 13:23, Absalom invites all the king’s sons, and even David himself, to a sheep-shearing feast, on which occasion the guests became “merry with wine” (1Sa 25:2 sq.). The vintage was also celebrated with festive eating and drinking (Jdg 9:27). Feasting at funerals existed among the Jews (2Sa 3:33). In Jer 16:7, among other funeral customs, mention is made of “the cup of consolation, to drink for their father or their mother,” which brings to mind the indulgence in spirituous liquors to which our ancestors were given at interments, and which has not yet entirely disappeared in Lancashire, nor probably in Ireland (Carleton’s Irish Peasantry; England in the Nineteenth Century, vol. ii). To what an extent expense was sometimes carried on these occasions may be learned from Josephus (War, 4:1, 1), who, having remarked that Archelaus “mourned for his father seven days, and had given a very expensive funeral feast to the multitude,” states, ” which custom is the occasion of poverty to many of the Jews;” adding, “because they are forced to feast the multitude; for if any one omits it he is not esteemed a holy person.” SEE ENTERTAINMENT.
As among heathen nations, so also among the Hebrews. feasting made a part of the observances which took place on occasion of animal sacrifices. In Deu 12:6-7, after the Israelites are enjoined to bring to the place chosen of God their burnt offerings, tithes, heave offerings, vows, free-will offerings, and the firstlings of their herds and flocks, they are told, “There shall ye eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all’ ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee” (1Sa 9:19; 1Sa 16:3; 1Sa 16:5; 2Sa 6:19). These sacrificial meals were enjoyed in connection with peace offerings, whether eucharistic or votive. The kidneys, and all the inward fat, and the tail of the lamb, were burnt with the daily sacrifice; the breast and right shoulder fell to the priest, and the rest was to be eaten by the offerer and his friends, on the same day if the offering were eucharistic, on that and the next day if it were votive (Lev 3:1-17; Lev 7:11-21; Lev 7:29-36). To the feast at the second tithe of the produce of the land, which was to be made every year, and eaten at the annual festivals before Jehovah, not only friends, but strangers, Widows, orphans, and Levites were to be invited, as well as the slaves. If the tabernacle was so distant as to make it inconvenient to carry thither the tithe, it was to be turned into money, which was to be spent in providing feasts at the place at which the festivals were held (Deu 14:22-27; Deu 12:14;. Tobit i. 6). Charitable entertainments were also provided, at the end of three years, from the tithe of the increase. The Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow were to be present (Deu 12:17-19; Deu 14:28-29; Deu 26:12-15). At the feast of Pentecost the command is very express (Deu 16:11), “Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that are among you.” Accordingly, Tobit (ii, 1, 2) affirms, “Now when I was come home again, in the feast of Pentecost, when I saw abundance of meat, I said to my son, go and bring what poor man soever thou shalt find out of our brethren, who is mindful of the Lord.” The Israelites were forbidden to partake of food offered in sacrifice to idols (Exo 34:15), lest they should be thereby enticed into idolatry, or appear to give a sanction to idolatrous observances (1Co 10:28). SEE ALISGEMA. For further particulars as to social entertainments, SEE BANQUET; and as to sacred occasions, SEE FESTIVAL.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Feast
as a mark of hospitality (Gen. 19:3; 2 Sam. 3:20; 2 Kings 6:23); on occasions of domestic joy (Luke 15:23; Gen. 21:8); on birthdays (Gen. 40:20; Job 1:4; Matt. 14:6); and on the occasion of a marriage (Judg. 14:10; Gen. 29:22).
Feasting was a part of the observances connected with the offering up of sacrifices (Deut. 12:6, 7; 1 Sam. 9:19; 16:3, 5), and with the annual festivals (Deut. 16:11). “It was one of the designs of the greater solemnities, which required the attendance of the people at the sacred tent, that the oneness of the nation might be maintained and cemented together, by statedly congregating in one place, and with one soul taking part in the same religious services. But that oneness was primarily and chiefly a religious and not merely a political one; the people were not merely to meet as among themselves, but with Jehovah, and to present themselves before him as one body; the meeting was in its own nature a binding of themselves in fellowship with Jehovah; so that it was not politics and commerce that had here to do, but the soul of the Mosaic dispensation, the foundation of the religious and political existence of Israel, the covenant with Jehovah. To keep the people’s consciousness alive to this, to revive, strengthen, and perpetuate it, nothing could be so well adapated as these annual feasts.” (See FESTIVALS)
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Feast
“a feast of festival,” is used (a) especially of those of the Jews, and particularly of the Passover; the word is found mostly in John’s Gospel (seventeen times); apart from the Gospels it is used in this way only in Act 18:21; (b) in a more general way, in Col 2:16, AV, “holy day,” RV, “a feast day.”
denotes (a) “the chief meal of the day,” dinner or supper, taken at or towards evening; in the plural “feasts,” Mat 23:6; Mar 6:21; Mar 12:39; Luk 20:46; otherwise translated “supper,” Luk 14:12, Luk 14:16-17, Luk 14:24; Joh 12:2; Joh 13:2, Joh 13:4; Joh 21:20; 1Co 11:21 (of a social meal); (b) “the Lord’s Supper,” 1Co 11:20; (c) “the supper or feast” which will celebrate the marriage of Christ with His spirtual Bride, at the inauguration of His Kingdom, Rev 19:9; (d) figuratively, of that to which the birds of prey will be summoned after the overthrow of the enemies of the Lord at the termination of the war of Armageddon, Rev 19:17 (cp. Eze 39:4, Eze 39:17-20). See SUPPER.
“a reception feast, a banquet” (from dechomai, “to receive”), Luk 5:29; Luk 14:13 (not the same as No. 2; see Luk 14:12).
“a wedding,” especially a wedding “feast” (akin to gameo, “to marry”); it is used in the plural in the following passages (the RV rightly has “marriage feast” for the AV, “marriage,” or “wedding”), Mat 22:2-4, Mat 22:9 (in verses Mat 22:11-12, it is used in the singular, in connection with the wedding garment); Mat 25:10; Luk 12:36; Luk 14:8; in the following it signifies a wedding itself, Joh 2:1-2; Heb 13:4; and figuratively in Rev 19:7, of the marriage of the Lamb; in Rev 19:9 it is used in connection with the supper, the wedding supper (or what in English is termed “breakfast”), not the wedding itself, as in Rev 19:7.
“love,” is used in the plural in Jud 1:12, signifying “love feasts,” RV (AV, “feasts of charity”); in the corresponding passage, 2Pe 2:13, the most authentic mss. have the word apate, in the plural, “deceivings.”
Notes: (1) In 1Co 10:27 the verb kaleo, “to call,” in the sense of inviting to one’s house, is translated “biddeth you (to a feast);” in the most authentic texts there is no separate phrase representing “to a feast,” as in some mss., eis deipnon (No. 2). (2) In Mar 14:2; Joh 2:23 the AV translates heorte (see No. 1) by “feast day” (RV, “feast”). (3) For the “Feast of the Dedication,” Joh 10:22, see DEDICATION.
“to keep festival” (akin to A, No. 1) is translated “let us keep the feast,” in 1Co 5:8. This is not the Lord’s Supper, nor the Passover, but has reference to the continuous life of the believer as a festival or holy-day (see AV, margin), in freedom from “the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
“to entertain sumptuously with,” is used in the Passive Voice, denoting “to feast sumptuously with” (sun, “together,” and euochia, “good cheer”), “to revel with,” translated “feast with” in 2Pe 2:13; Jud 1:12.