The attitude of Jesus to the feasts of His peo ple seems to have resembled that of the earlier prophets. Concerning one of them only, the Sab bath, has His opinion been recorded. But His defense of His disciples when charged with break ing the Sabbath clearly reveals His position. "Man was not made for the sake of the Sabbath. but the Sabbath for the sake of man; therefore man has also authority over the Sabbath," is an assertion utterly at variance with the prevailing estimate of the day. Whether His last meal with His disciples was the paschal meal cannot be de termined with certainty. These disciples no doubt continued to keep the Jewish festivals. Only as Christianity began to make converts outside of Judaism did the question of their observance become an important one. In the Epistle to the Galatians, Sabbaths, new moons, and other sa cred days are regarded as shadows of the coining reality, and done away with in Christ, and the insistence upon Sabbath-keeping is looked upon as a. sign of apostasy from the liberty of the Gos pel. In the profound philosophy' of the Fourth Gospel the festivals of the Jews find a symbolic interpretation. In Jewish-Christian circles, how ever, the Sabbath continued to be observed, as the A poslolical Conslitulions and the canons of the Council of Laodicea show. A second-century gospel fragment in Coptic indicates that even the Jewish Passover was kept by Christians in Egypt. But gradually a number of Christian festivals came into vogue. It is not known how early the first day of the week began to he celebrated in honor of the resurrection. There is no trace of such an observance in the New Testament. For neither I. Cor. xvi. 2, where each person is bid den to lay by him, i.e. in his own house, as he is prospered, on the first day of the week; nor Acts xx. 7, where there is a breaking of bread on the last day of Paul's stay in Trans, as probably on the preceding ones; nor Rev. i. 10, where the Lord's Day seems to refer to the great judgment day, can be quoted as showing that the first day was distinguished from other days as having a sacred character. What day Pliny refers to in his letter to Trajan is uncertain. The first evi dence of religious services upon the first day, be cause on it "God made the world and Jesus Christ rose from the dead." is found in .Justin Martyr's Apology, written in A.D. 150. Whether the "venerable day of the sun" was first asso ciated with the resurrection through the Mithra cult cannot yet be determined; but Constantine's decree, by which it was made a holiday for the Homan Empire, is couched in language that pre supposes its general recognition as a sacred day. (See SABBATH ; SUNDAY. ) Through the Quarto decimal) struggle a separate Christian festival distinct from the Passover developed in the sec ond century, even though the Easter ritual pre served many features of the Jewish festival. (See EASTER. ) While Origen still speaks of Pentecost as the whole season of seven weeks following Easter, the celebration of the outpouring of the spirit, was in course of time placed at the end of this period. Clement of Alexandria is the first to mention the festival of the Epiphany. That of the Nativity was later. Both Jews and other nations were accustomed to celebrate the winter solstice. Christmas may therefore go back either to the Dedication Feast, to the Roman Saturnalia, or to the great winter festival of the Mithra cult. Subsequently it united with the Germanic Yule. The feast of the Ascension is not older than the fourth century. The great number of pagans entering the Church at that time, and the new character of Christianity as a State religion, caused many combinations of old festivals with the new ones. In the beginning of the sixth century attendance at church was made obligatory at Easter, Christmas, Epiph any, Ascension, Pentecost. Nativity, and Saint John. and later Annunciation. Purification, As sumption of the Virgin. Circumcision, Michael, and All Saints were added. Soon after, the ecclesiastical year was arranged in three cycles: Advent, Easter, and Pentecost. The process of assimilating pagan festivals still continued. Ac cording to the direction of Gregory the Great.
feasts as Ave]] as temples were to be appropriated. Thus the Yule of the Germanic peoples and the Holiada of the Slays were merged into Christ mas, the feast in honor of the goddess Ostara united with the Passover, the Slavonic Kupulo feast blended with the midsummer festival in honor of Saint John the Baptist, and the Celtic carnival and Brandon feasts continued under the Christian regime. The Greek Church multi plied festivals in honor of the saints even faster than the Roman Church. It instituted the spe cial day for the celebration of all the saints of the old law. The Coptic Church adopted seven
great festivals: Christmas. Epiphany. Annuncia tion. Palm Sunday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost. Toward the end of the Middle Ages earnest protests were made by leaders in the Church as well as by dissenters against the increase of fes tal days, both for economic and religious rea sons. The partial or complete cessation of work took a disproportionate amount of time from every form of labor, and in spite of religious observances and prohibition of certain amuse ments, the leisure and gayety of these days natu rally had a tendency to lead to excesses of differ ent kinds.
The modern tendency in the Roman Catholic Church has accordingly been to reduce the num ber of holidays of obligation, i.e. those on which servile work is prohibited; not counting Sun days, there are only six in the year in the United States. On the other hand, there has been a great increase in the total number of festivals, with the development of certain devotions and the grad ual enlargement of the calendar. They are di vided ritually into doubles, semi-doubles, and simples. the first being those in which the an tiphons at lauds and vespers are doubled, and including doubles of the first and second class, greater and lesser doubles. Doubles of the first class are frequently accompanied by octaves, i.e. the seven days after the feast are kept with corresponding ritual observances.
The only feast day retained by all the Churches of the Reformation was Sunday (q.v.). The Church of England made fewer changes in the calendar than any other, retaining in addition to Easter, Christmas, Ascension. and Whitsun day, Trinity Sunday, the Circumcision. the Epiphany, the Purification and Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, the Nativity of Saint John Baptist, All Saints, Saint Michael. and All An gels, feasts of all the Apostles and Evangelists. Lutheran churches retained the feasts of the New Year, Epiphany, Annunciation, Palm Sun day, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Saint John the Baptist, and Christmas. At Easter, Pente cost. and Christmas two days are kept. Presby terians and other reformed bodies recognized no holy day, except Sunday, which is regarded as the Christian Sabbath. The Westminster As sembly of 1645 declared that there is no war rant in the Word of God for any other festival.
At the time of the French Revolution an at tempt was made to reform the calendar by sub stituting a ten-day week for that of seven days, the celebrat ion of other events, personal it and virtues for those pin phasized by the Church. But it hail no permanent success. The separa tion of Chureh and State in the United States. and the principle of religious liberty widely recognised in Europe. during the last century have raised many new questions concerning the sacred days. Where civil society can no longer take cognizance of the conceived sanctity of any day, hut only guarantee that no citizen shall be disturbed at any time in his religious exercises, new grounds must be found for legislation affect ing holidays. While absolute cessation from labor cannot be enjoined without infringing upon the liberties of the individual, the duty of society to Protect its weaker members has been invoked to justify legislative measures securing to all the privilege of periodic rest. In some countries the public libraries, museums, art galleries, and theatres are open on holidays; in others, the labor necessarily involved is urged as the reason for prohibiting all educational and artistic ex hibits. It is held by many sociologists that, as only a regularly recurring period of rest and recreation seems to be required, all legitimate needs may be met, without interruption of the world's work, its educational opportunities, and its artistic enjoyments, by an alternation of working forces.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Spencer, Principles of SociolBibliography. Spencer, Principles of Sociol- ogy (3d ed., London, 1885) ; Frazer, The Golden Bough (New York, 1890) ; Doolittle, Social Life of the Chinese (New York, 1866) ; Schflmann, Grieehischc Alterthamer (Berlin, 1897) ; Rohde, Psyche 1898) ; Mommsen, Hcortologie (Leipzig, 186-0 ; Maspero, Histoire ancienne des pcuples de Porient classique (Paris, 1895-99) ; •astrow, Religion of the Ancient Babylonians (Boston, 1898) ; Snouck-Hurgronje, Het nick kaansche Feest (Leyden, 1890) ; Wellhausen, Neste arabischcn Heidenthuins (Berlin, 1897), and Prolegomena zit?. Geschiehte Israels (Berlin, 1895 ) ; George, Die alteren jiidisehen Feste (Ber lin, 1835) ; Benzinger, Debraisehe Arehaologie (Freiburg, 189-0 ; Nowack, Ilebriiische Areha ologie (Freiburg, 1894) ; Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church (New York, 1881) ; Green. The Hebrew Feasts (New York, 1885). See CALENDAR; FAST.