A religious festival is a time of special importance marked by adherents to that religion. Religious festivals are commonly celebrated on recurring cycles in a calendar year or lunar calendar. The science of religious rites and festivals is known as heortology.
Roman men thought to be participating in the Compitalia festival, in a wall painting from Pompeii
Festivals (feriae) were an important part of Roman religious life during both the Republican and Imperial eras, and were one of the primary features of the Roman calendar. Feriae ("holidays" in the sense of "holy days") were either public (publicae) or private (privatae). State holidays were celebrated by the Roman people and received public funding. Feriae privatae were holidays celebrated in honor of private individuals or by families.[1]
The 1st-century BC scholar Varro defined feriae as "days instituted for the sake of the gods."[2] A deity's festival often marked the anniversary (dies natalis, "birthday") of the founding of the deity's temple, or a rededication after a major renovation.[3] Public business was suspended for the performance of religious rites on the feriae. Cicero says that people who were free should not engage in lawsuits and quarrels, and slaves should get a break from their labors.[4] On calendars of the Republic and early Empire, the religious statusdays were marked by letters such as F (for fastus), and N (for nefastus, when political activities and the administration of justice were prohibited). By the late 2nd century AD, extant calendars no longer show these letters, probably as a result of calendar reforms undertaken by Marcus Aurelius that recognized the changed religious environment of the empire.[5]
On surviving Roman calendars, festivals that appear in large capital letters (such as the Lupercalia and Parilia) are thought to have been the most ancient holidays, becoming part of the calendar before 509 BC.[6] Some of the oldest festivals are not named for deities.[7] During the Imperial period, several traditional festivals localized at Rome became less important, and the birthdays and anniversaries of the emperor and his family gained prominence as Roman holidays. Games (ludi), such as the Ludi Apollinares, were often dedicated to particular deities, but were not technically feriae, although they might be holidays in the modern sense of days off work (dies festi). After the mid-1st century AD, there were more frequent spectacles and games(circenses) held in the venue called a "circus", in honor of various deities or for imperial anniversaries (dies Augusti). A religious festival held on a single day, such as the Floralia, might be expanded with games over multiple days (Ludi Florae); the festival of Flora is seen as a precursor of May Day festivities.[8]
A major source for Roman holidays is Ovid's Fasti, a poem that describes and provides origins for festivals from January to June at the time of Augustus. Because it ends with June, less is known about Roman festivals in the second half of the year, with the exception of the Saturnalia, a religious festival in honor of Saturn on December 17 that expanded with celebrations through December 23. Probably the best-known Roman festival, some of its customs, such as gift-giving and the prevalence of candles, are thought to have influenced popular celebrations of Christmas.[9]
The central festival of Christianity is Easter, on which Christians celebrate their belief that Jesus Christrose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. Even for Easter, however, there is no agreement among the various Christian traditions regarding the date or manner of the observance, less for Christmas, Pentecost, or various other holidays. Both Protestants and Catholics observe certain festivals commemorating events in the life of Christ, and as well as Eastern Orthodox they often celebrate patronal festivals. Of these, the two most important are Christmas, which commemorates the Birth of Jesus, and Easter, which marks his resurrection.
Festival of Faiths
A celebration of interfaith dialogue, the first Festival of Faiths was held in Louisville, Kentucky,[10] and in 1998, Senator Wendell Ford passed a resolution in the United States Congress “to express the sense of the Senate that the Louisville Festival of Faiths should be commended and should serve as model for similar festivals in other communities throughout the United States.”[11] Several cities throughout the United States now host interfaith festivals including Kansas City, Kansas,[12] St Louis, Missouri,[13] Indianapolis, Indiana [14] and Cincinnati, Ohio.[15]
A Jewish holiday (Yom Tov or chag in Hebrew) is a day that is holy to the Jewish people according to Judaism and is usually derived from the Hebrew Bible, specifically the Torah, and in some cases established by the rabbis in later eras. There are a number of festival days, fast days (ta'anit) and days of remembrance.
Dehwa Honina or Dehwa Ṭurma (the Little Feast) is a Mandaean religious festival which takes place on the 18th of Taura (Ayar), celebrating the return of the divine messenger Hibil Ziwa from the World of Darkness to the World of Light.[18]
^H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (Cornell University Press, 1981), pp. 38–39.
^Varro, De lingua latina 6.12 (dies deorum causa instituti, as cited by Scullard, p. 39, noting also the phrase dis dedicati, "dedicated to the gods," in Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.16.2.
^Hendrik Wagenvoort, "Initia Cereris," in Studies in Roman Literature, Culture and Religion (Brill, 1956), pp. 163–164.
^Cicero, De legibus 2.29, as cited by Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, p. 39.
^Michele Renee Salzman, On Roman Time: The Codex Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (University of California Press, 1990), pp. 17, 178.
^Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, p. 41.
^Salzman, On Roman Time, pp. 17, 120ff., 178; entry on "Bacchanalia and Saturnalia," in The Classical Tradition, edited by Anthony Grafton, Glenn W. Most, and Salvatore Settis (Harvard University Press, 2010), p. 116.
^Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook (Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol. 2, p. 124; Craig A. Williams, Martial: Epigrams Book Two (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 259 (on the custom of gift-giving); entry on "Bacchanalia and Saturnalia," in The Classical Tradition, p. 116; C. Bennet Pascal, "October Horse," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 85 (1981), p. 289.
^Scanlon, Leslie (14 November 1996). ""Festival to Showcase Religious Diversity"". The Courier-Journal.
Govinda celebrations during the Krishna Janmaashtami festivities
Hindu religious festival in Hampi
