feast

feast commemorative banquet symbolizing communal unity. Generally associated with primitive rituals and later with religious practices, feasts may also commemorate such events as births, marriages, harvests, and deaths. The principal Christian feasts of the Western Church are Easter , Pentecost , Epiphany , and Christmas . The greater number of feasts (excluding Sunday, the weekly feast) fall on the same day of the month each year (e.g., Christmas) and constitute the temporal cycle. Some of the more important liturgical observances are movable (e.g., Easter) and are part of the sanctoral system. Among the Jews the chief feasts are Rosh ha-Shanah , the Feast of Tabernacles , Purim , Passover , Hanukkah , and Shavuot . In the Muslim world the Islamic feasts vary according to country and locale, although there are several feast days of universal importance. The most widely celebrated are the little and great feasts following the fast of Ramadan and the feast commemorating the birth of Muhammad. In Buddhist countries festive celebrations are usually associated with the birthday of Buddha, his attainment of Nirvana, or enlightenment, and his death. In India there are many national and regional Hindu feasts. One of the most important is the feast of Holi. See also vigil and fasting .

feast feast day a day on which a celebration, especially an annual Christian one, is held.
feast of reason intellectual discussion, as complementary to genial conversation; the phrase comes originally from Pope's Satires of Horace (1733), ‘the feast of reason and the flow of soul’.

see also after the feast comes the reckoning, skeleton at the feast.

feast / fēst/ • n. a large meal, typically one in celebration of something. ∎  a plentiful supply of something enjoyable, esp. for the mind or senses: the concert season offers a feast of classical music. ∎  an annual religious celebration: the feast of St. Joseph. • v. [intr.] eat and drink sumptuously. ∎  (feast on) eat large quantities of: feasting on barbecued chickenr. PHRASES: feast one's eyes on gaze at with pleasure. feast or famine either too much of something or too little.