It is customary among Mohammedans to observe the 10th day of each month, and also every Friday (called El-Gumah, the assembly). Though the latter is frequently described as the Mohammedan Sunday the administration of affairs goes on as usual, except during the time given to public devotions. Of the annual festi vals the two most important are, first, the Eed es-Sagheer (or minor festival), ending the rigorous fast of Ramadan ("burning which occasions an outburst of general rejoic ing among Moslems the world over, continuing for three days (see RAMADAN) ; and, second, Eed el-Kebeer (or great festival) beginning on the 10th day of the last month of the Mo hammedan calendar. It is a rather less hearty celebration than the one called the minor, though it also continues for three or even four days. The first 10 days of the first month of the year, Muharram, beginning at the autumnal equinox are kept in pious form, all ceremonies culminating on the 10th day, Yom Ashoora. Besides these, there are the birthday of Mohammed in the third month, the birthday of El-Hoseyn in the fourth month, the anni versary of Mohammed's mystic flight to Para dise on the 27th day of the seventh month, and several other anniversaries of a like kind.
Tti ancient Egypt the feasts were as various as the divinities. Lunar feasts in honor of the dead were general observances. But the cele brations which typically expressed the orthodox Egyptian mind supported a fanciful interpreta tion of the solar system: Osiris, the Sun-god, departed after the autumnal equinox, was found again about the winter solstice, and en tered into the moon at the beginning of spring; all these occasions giving rise to special feasts and services, and the life-producing attributes of the sun were celebrated in orgies of sex. In later days, however, the festivals of Isis, under the dominance of Pantheism, were of a mystical rather than of a physical character. The annual rising of the worshipful Nile was also a festive occasion.
Jewish Not the least important events of the Jewish calendar are those con, netted with the institution of the Sabbath (meaning "secession from closely asso ciated from time immemorial with the feasts celebrating the new moon and the four phases of the moon. Seven was an occult number among both the Assyrians and Hebrews. On the appearance of the new moon on the sacred seventh month Tisri, the Feast of Trumpet., was held, with additional burnt offerings and sacrifices. The Sabbatical Year, during which the land lay fallow and only what the earth of herself offered was taken, recurred every seventh year. The harvest was given to the poor and a cancellation of all debts prescribed. The law in its completeness was read to the people at the Feast of Tabernacles which opened the Sabbatical year. This Feast of Tabernacles,
with the Passover and Pentecost, were annual solar festivals. The Passover (or feast) was held at the vernal equinox: the word hav ing reference to the gamboling of lambs; the firstlings of the flocks, by antique custom, being sacrificed. This festival was held in conjunction with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was a celebration of a people who had developed from the pastoral into the agricultural state, and quite dissimilar in character. The Mazzoth cakes, which alone were eaten at this feast, simply originated among harvesters too busy at this time to superintend the slow operation of preparing yeast bread. The whole seven weeks, or 50 days, between this barley harvest and the gathering in of the wheat crop (the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost) was a season of merrymaking. The Feast of Tabernacles was observed from the 15th to the 22d of Tisri, and followed five days after the only fast day prescribed by the law, the Day of Atonement. The feast marked the completion of the harvest of fruit, olives and oil and wine, and closed the tribal year. The sacrifices were far more nu merous than at any other feast. Historically it commemorated the wanderings in the wilderness.
Of the minor festivals the most important were the Feast of Purim held on the 14th and 15th of the month of Adar, the 12th month (said to have been instituted by Mordecai to commemorate the overthrow of Haman and the failure of the plots against the Jews, as de tailed in the Book of Esther), the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple (which commenced on the 25th of Chislev, the ninth month, and lasted for eight days, instituted by Judas Mac cabieus in ac. 164; when the temple, which had been desecrated by Antiochns Epiphanes. was once more purified and rededicated), and the Feast of Wood Offering on the 15th of Abib: the last of the nine occasions on which offerings of wood were brought for the use of the temple.
Christian Festivals.— The early Christian festivals were observed with a view to com memorating Christ and the canonized person ages of the Church. We have good authority for the statement that very early in the history of the Church the weekly day of rest was trans ferred from Saturday to Sunday and called the Day of Joy or Resurrection. Gradually, in the course of the 2d century, two separate celebra tions were held in the place of the Jewish Pass over: the Pascha Staurosimon was the festival of the Death, the Pascha Anastasimon, of the Resurrection of Christ. The festival of Pente cost became the festival of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost and of the inauguration of the New Covenant.