It is one thing only that monotheism has in common with polytheism with respect to its F.—namely, that they are with each the religious expression of human joy or human sorrow. But if the former, with a dim misgiving of some awful and supreme power, invited the multifarious governors of the many provinces of nature to partake, as guests, of bodily and intellectual feasts, together with their hosts; monotheism, in binding up all fear and all hope, all gratitude and all awe, which moved the heart of man, in one almighty Creator, Mover, and Maintainer of all things, celebrated its F. in honor of this omnipresent Spirit with a veneration, a 'purity, and a lofty elevation, such as the worshipers of star, animal, or image never knew. With the first and strictest mono theists, the Hebrews, whose very existence as a nation was traced to the special and miraculous interference of this highest and only God, the remembrance of that great -event, their liberation from Egypt, and the momentous period of preparation in the desert which followed it, mingled with almost all their religious observances, and -especially their F., and infused into them all a tone of deep and fervent gratitude; while at the same time it held ever before their eyes the cause of their nationality, and their aim and destiny "to be a kingdom of priests and a holy people." The Hebrew F., too, are of a historical, agricultural, astronomical, and political nature; but they mostly combine all these characteristics, and are always hallowed by the same religious idea, and the same piety and devotion to one and the same holy name. Connected with their F. were no plays and no representations of a god's deeds, no games and no cruelty, no mystery and no sensuality, but the sacrifice of the day, and a special occu pation with the divine law, were the visible signs of the exalted seasons. The influence -of the number seven—an influence met with among most eastern nations—is seen in the recurrence of many of the Jewish solemnities. See SEVEN. The Sabbath, the first -and most important of these septenary festivals, is treated of under its own head. Of the service in the temple, and of the way in which this and the other F. were and are "kept after the destruction of the temple, something will be said under. HEBREWS and •Jaws. The most exalted of new-moon F. was that of the first day of the seventh month, "the day of remembrance of the sounding," or "of trumpets" (Lev. xxiii. 24), to which, in later times, when the Seleucidan era was introduced (the Syrian year beginning with the autumnal equinox), the name of Rosh hashana (New Year) was -given; notwithstanding that in Exodus (xii. 2) Nisan is spoken of as the first month of the year. After a period of six years of labor, the earth, too, was to celebrate a Sabbath-year; what it produced spontaneously belonged to the poor, the stranger, and -to animals. It is remarkable that even Alexander the great and Ctesar remitted the taxes of Judea in this year of Shonitta (abandoning). After a revolution of seven times seven years, the year of Jubilee, or Jobe], was to be celebrated, in which all the Hebrew slaves were set free, and all land which had been sold in the interval was restored to the forucr owners, in order that the original equilibrium in the families and tribes should be maintained intact. (These two F., however, were, according to • the Talmud, not kept before the Babylonian captivity.) The preeminently agronomical and historical F. were the three Chaggint (whence the Arab. Ilagg, a pilgrim to Mecca)—viz., Pesach (Passover), :Schabuoth (Feast of Weeks), and Succoth (Feast of Tabernacles), on which three every male was obliged to go up to Jerusalem and offer some of the first fruits, besides the prescribed sacrifices (see PASSOVER, etc.).
The postmosaic and exclusively historical F., Purim, the feast of Haman, Chanuca, feast of the Maccabees, will be noticed in the article on Jaws, Only a cursory glance can be here taken of the Christian F w ., hicliare treated fully and separately under their various names. They were for the most part grafted, in the course of time, upon the Jewish and pagan ones, but always with a distinct reference to Christ and other holy personages. The weekly day of rest was transferred from Saturday to Sunday, and called the Day of Joy, or Resurrection, just as the weekly Jewish fasts of Monday and Thursday were changed for Wednesday and Friday. See FASTS. For a long time, both Saturday and Sunday were celebrated, especially in the east. Two separate celebrations took the place of the Jewish Passover: the Paseha Staurosimon was the festival of the death, the Paseha Anastasimon of the resurrection of our Lord (see EASTER); and the festival of Pentecost, or the law-giving at Sinai, i became the festival of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, and of the inauguration of the New Covenant.
In the course of the 4th c., two new F. were introduced: Epiphany (q.v.), which originated in the east; and that of the Nativity or Christmas (q.v.). Circumcision, Corpus Domini, the F. of the Cross, of Transfiguration, of the Trinity, and many others, are of still later date. The veneration felt for Mary as the "mother of God," found its expression likewise in the consecration of many days to her special service and worship; such as that of her presentation, annunciation (Lady's Day), assumption, visitation, immaculate conception (q.v.), and many minor F., over and above the Saturdays, which, in some parts, were entirely dedicated to her, in order that the mother might have her weekly day like the Son. Besides these, there were F. of angels, of apostles, saints, martyrs (on the supposed anniversary of their death, called their birthday, dies natalis), of souls, ordinations, etc.
Celebrated at first with all the primitive simplicity of genuine piety, most of these F. were ere long invested with such pomp and splendor that they surpassed those of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Burlesque, even coarse and profane representations, pro cessions. mysteries, and night-services, were, in some places, although unauthorized by the general church, connected with them, and voices within the church loudly denounced these "pagan practices." Ordinances forbidding mundane music and female singers for divine service were issued, the vigils were transformed into fasts, days of abstinence and penance were instituted, partly as counterpoises, but with little result. Nor did the prodigious increase of these festive occasions, and the rigor with which abstinence from labor was enforced in most cases, fail to produce the natural results of indolence and licentiousness among the large mass of the people. Bitter and frequent were the complaints throughout Christendom; but although even men like archbishop Simon of Canterbury (1332), Petrus de .Alliaco, Nicolaus of Clemangis, did their utmost to obtain a reduction of these festive occasions, which overspread well-nigh the whole year, it was only after the most decided and threatening demands, such as that pronounced by the German diet of Nurnberg in 1522, that pope Urban was prevailed upon to reduce the number for Catholic Christianity (1642). Benedict XIV. (1742), Clement XIV. (1773), followed in the same direction. On the change produced both in their number and in the manner of their celebration through the reformation, we must forbear to enlarge here.
The Christian F. have been divided variously: into feria statutes (returning annually at fixed times), indictee (extraordinary, specially proclaimed), duplicia (double reminis cence, or of higher importance), semiduplieia (half double), etc. Another division is into weekly and yearly feasts, these latter being subdivided into greater and minor, or into movable and immovable. There is also a distinction made between integri (whole days), intercisi (half-days), etc.
The only trace of the ancient manner of dating a festival from the eve or vesper of the previous day—a practice discontinued since the 12th c., when the old Roman way of counting the day from midnight to midnight was reintroduced—survives in the "ringing in" of certain days of special solemnity on the night before, and in the fasts of the vigils.
On some of the principal Mohammedan F., partly based upon those of the Jews and Christians, such as the weekly Friday, the Yom Ashoora (the Jewish day of atonement), the birthday of the prophet (Molid An-Nebee), that of Hussein, of Mohammed's grand daughter Zeyneb, of the night of the prophet's ascension to heaven (Leylet Al-Mearag), the night of the middle of the month Shaaban, in which the fate of every man is con firmed for the ensuing year; the Eed Al-Shagheer or Ramadan-Beyram, at the end of the Ramadan fasts, and the Eed Al-Kabir, or the great festival of the sacrifice (Kurban Beyram), see MOTIAMMEDANISNI. For further information, see Herodotus (ii. 60); Plu tarch (vii.); Strat) (vi. and x); Ovid, Fasti; Macrobius, Sat. i. 7, 11; Meursius, Gracia Feriata; Meiners, Gesehiehte d. Fasold, Ierologia; Bible; Mishna; Gemara; Shulehan Aruch; Josephus; Philo; Maimonides; Buxtorf, Lex. Taint.; Synag. Jud.; Bartolocci, Bibl. Rabb.; Lightfoot, Her. Hebr. and Taint.; Lund, Bibl. Wette, Areherologie; Neander, Hist. of the Ch.; Blackmore, Christ. Anti g.; Baumgarten, EH/lute rung d. der. Alterth.; Siegel, Handb. d. chr. Atterth.; Discorsidi Argomento Religioso; Koran, etc.