What is a feast day?

-- (mbdawg87@hotmail.com), November 16, 2003

Answers

It is a day of the calendar year designated as a day to give special attention and/or special honor to a particular work of God in the Church, or a particular person who played an important role in God's plan of salvation. Major feast days include Christmas, Easter, Pentacost, the Feast of Christ the King, and the Feast of Corpus Christi ("Body of Christ"). There are a few feast days honoring Mary the Mother of God, like the Feast of the Assumption and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Actually every day of the year that is not another major feastday is designated as the feastday of a particular saint. The scriptures read at Mass will be relevant to the Feastday if it is a major one. The prayers of the Mass on a feastday include references to the feast of the day, and the sermon may be on the subject of the feastday, though not necessarily so. It is a way of keeping the major events and persons of salvation history constantly before the people of God.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), November 16, 2003.

The word, "feast" -- whether intended to refer to a religious celebration or a banquet for celebratory dining -- is derived from a Latin adjective, "festus," which could mean "solemn" or "festive."

Within Catholic terminology, the word "feast" is used in two ways -- generically (as in Paul M's post, above) and specifically. I'll talk about the latter.

If one wanted to use the most precise language, as reflected in the Church's liturgical calendar, one would not refer to the "Feast of Christ the King," the "Feast of Corpus Christi," the "Feast of the Assumption," or the "Feast of the Immaculate Conception" -- because these are now referred to as the "Solemnity of Christ the King," the "Solemnity of the Assumption," etc..

Likewise, following the liturgical calendar, one would usually not be able to refer to the "Feast of St. X," because when almost any saint is commemorated, the calendar now refers to the day as the "Memorial of St. X." [Celebration of memorials are sometimes obligatory, sometimes optional.]

Now, I've mentioned "Solemnities" and "Memorials" on the liturgical calendar. What about "Feasts"? Yes, there are a limited number of days (between 15 and 20, I think) that retain that specific designation. Here are some of them:
Feast of St. John the Apostle/Evangelist -- December 27
Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross -- September 14
Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran -- November 9

Days called "Feasts" are second only in rank to "Solemnities." They can be so important as to "pre-empt" the normal celebration of Sundays in Ordinary Time. In fact, two of the Feasts I just mentioned were celebrated on recent Sundays in 2003!

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), November 17, 2003.