days or seasons set apart for public rejoicing and rest from ordinary labor
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'''FESTIVALS''' (OF., Fr. ''festival'', from ML.
''festivalis'', from Lat. ''festivus'', festive, from ''festum'',
feast), or {{sc|Feasts}}. Days or seasons set apart for
public rejoicing and rest from ordinary labor, at
stated intervals, or occasionally for religious
purposes solely, or for the celebration of some person
or event. Originally, all festivals were of a
religious character, since eating, drinking, and
other pleasures connected with them could not
be indulged without sharing these enjoyments
with the divinities. The earliest of all festivals
seem to have been connected with the cult of the
dead. At great banquets communion was held
with the departed spirits and offerings were made
to them. As clans grew and became scattered,
such common meals could only be arranged
occasionally. When the great luminaries began to
attract worship and the ancestral spirits were in
some way connected with them, these banquets
were held annually or monthly. While purely
animistic festivals are still observed in different
parts of the world, when food and drink are
offered to the dead at their burial-places, in the
vast majority of instances the primitive significance
has been obscured or wholly obliterated
by a superinduced reference to natural
phenomena or historic events. Wandering tribes
are greatly attracted by the changing phases of
the moon, and the festivals characteristic of the
nomadic state are chiefly lunar. When men settle
down to agricultural life, they become dependent
on sunshine and rain; winter and summer,
seed-time and harvest, equinoxes and solstices
become the occasions for festivities. With the
development of a more complex social organization
and the rise of great empires, the interest in
national self-preservation becomes acute, and
the feasts assume a political character as
celebrations of deliverance and victory. Veneration
of the great religious leaders who have deeply
impressed a people's life leads to the setting
apart of certain days in their honor. But whatever
new significance is added to an earlier festival,
something of its old character is likely to
adhere to it. The god who sleeps during the winter
and is awakened from his slumber at the
vernal equinox has much in common with the
ancestral spirit to whom new vitality is given by
a libation of blood, and it is natural that the
celebration of those mighty beings whose changing
fortunes and all too human experiences were seen
portrayed in the ceaseless play of nature's forces,
should borrow a feature from the banquets in
honor of the departed dead. Fellowship with and
likeness to the spirits associated with the
elements of nature are sought in more exacting
cultic performances. In solemn mimicry and
self-inflicted pains the acts and sufferings of the
deity are imitated. Sympathy with the solar
divinity as well as with his mother and his
spouse in the loss of generative power and the
recovery of reproductive strength is expressed
by the worshiper in self-imposed impotence and
sterility, or unrestrained sexual abandonment.
Songs, shouts, dances and processions, simple
scenic representations, and ultimately the drama
are the results of such symbolic actions. When
historic personalities and events begin to be
celebrated, the character of the gods is apt to be
transferred to the heroes, and the divine experiences
blend with the human. This is especially
the ease with the great religious leaders, whose
apotheosis is most natural.
The festivals celebrated by the ancient Toltecs
and Aztecs of Mexico, and the Incas of Peru,
while retaining features of ancestor-worship,
were for the most part of a solar and lunar {{hws|char|character.}}
{{hwe|acter.|character.}} The Mexicans had their chief feasts in
May, June, and December. The Peruvians, besides
the new moons, also celebrated the summer and
winter solstices and the equinoxes. The Chinese
have a very elaborate system of festivals. Of
these the most important is the one celebrated
in honor of the dead at the winter solstice. Even
the Buddhists of China have their feasts
commemorating the birth of Gautama Buddha, his
departure from home, and his entrance into
Nirvana. The Karens have an annual feast in
honor of the departed, while the Nagas of Assam
make their offerings to the dead each moon. In
Siam the 8th and 15th of every month are
considered sacred. From the Yajur Veda period to
the present day numerous feasts have been
observed in India. The Holi at the vernal equinox
and the Dasahara in the autumn are mentioned
as early as Aitareya Brahmana. In honor of
Vishnu, Siva, and Indra, the Ganges, and the
goddess Kali, festivals are still held. The ancient
Persians had four solar feasts, at the solstices
and the equinoxes, an annual funeral feast in
February, a celebration of the five intercalary
days, and several festivals to which a historic
significance was given, as celebrations of
victories like that of Iran over Turan, and of Feridun
over Zohak. The Fravardigan, or New Year's
Feast, had distinctly animistic features. With
the Mithra cult its great feast on the 25th of
December passed to Asia Minor and the West.
The Asianic peoples seem to have had their
festivals at the equinoxes. Thus the Phrygians
celebrated the sleep and the awakening of the sun-god
in the fall and the spring. The intense
worship of the mother-goddess in Asia Minor no
doubt influenced profoundly the festivals of the
Ionian Greeks.
In Greece each demos had its peculiar calendar.
But the ἑορτή, or new-moon feast
(Odyssey, xx. 156) was probably kept very
generally in earlier times. A harvest festival,
and an ancestral feast in honor of Erechtheus
also go back to a high antiquity (Iliad.
ix. 533; ii. 550). The Athenian calendar
which is best known contains one or more
festivals each month. In January the ''Lenæa'',
or wine-press feast in honor of Dionysus
was celebrated (see {{NIE article link|Bacchus}}); in February the
''Anthesteria'' of Dionysus, the ''Diasia'' of Zeus, and
the lesser ''Eleusinia'' (see {{NIE article link|Eleusinian Mysteries}});
in March the ''Pandia'' of Zeus, the ''Elaphebolia''
of Artemis, and the greater ''Dionysia''; in
April the ''Munychia'' of Artemis, and the
''Delphinia'' of Apollo; in May, the ''Thargelia'' of
Apollo, and the ''Plynteria'' and ''Oallynteria'' of
Athene; in June, the ''Diipolia'' of Zeus, and the
''Scirophoria'' of Athene; in July, the ''Cronia'' of
Cronus, and the ''[[../Panathenæa/]]'' (q.v.) of Athene;
in August, the ''Metageitnia'' of Apollo; in September,
the ''Boëdromia'' of Apollo, the ''Nemeseia'', and
the greater ''Eleusinia''; in October, the ''Pyanepsia''
of Apollo, the ''Oschophoria'' of Dionysus, the
''Athenæa of Athene, the ''Thesmophoria'' of Demeter,
and the ''Apaturia''; in November, the ''Maimakteria''
of Zeus; and in December, the lesser
Dionysia. The Nemeseia was an ancestor feast;
historic associations clustered about other festivals,
while still others were nature-feasts. Great
significance was acquired by the national feasts,
of which the games and dramatic performances
became the leading attractions. See {{NIE article link|Isthmus}};
{{NIE article link|Nemea}}; {{NIE article link|Olympia}};
{{NIE article link|Olympiad}}; {{NIE article link|Olympic Games}};
{{NIE article link|Pythian Games}}.
As in Greece, so in Italy, the festivals were
in earlier times comparatively few in number.
Among them were distinctly animistic feasts
such as the ''Lemuralia'' and the ''Feralia''. The
Roman receptivity to foreign religious customs
subsequently led to a great increase, and a
constant fluctuation in their number. At the
beginning of the Christian Era the most important
were the following: In January, New Year's
Day, the ''Agonalia'' and the ''Carmentalia''; in
February, the ''Faunalia'', the ''Lupercalia'', the
''Quirinalia'', the ''Feralia'', the ''Terminalia'', the ''Fugalia'',
and the ''Equiria''; in March, the ''Matronalia'', the
''Liberalia'', and the ''Quinquatria''; in April, the
''Megalesia'', the ''Cercalia'', the ''Palilia'', the ''Vinalia'',
the ''Robigalia'', and the ''Floralia''; in May, the
''Lemuria'', and the ''Ludi Martiales''; in June, the
feast of ''Semo Sancus'', the ''Vestalia'', and the
''Matralia''; in July the ''Apollinaria'' and ''Neptunalia'';
in August, the ''Nemoralia'', the ''Consualia'', the
''Vinalia Rustica'', and the ''Vulcanalia''; in September,
the ''Ludi Magni'' in honor of Jupiter, Juno,
and Minerva; in October, the ''Meditrinalia'', the
''Faunalia'', and the ''Equiria''; in November, the
''Epulum Jovis''; and in December, the last
''Faunalia'', the ''Opalia'', the ''Saturnalia'', and the
''Larentalia''. Under the emperors the number of festivals
increased to such an extent that at one
time there were more feast days than days of
work. The Germanic nations had important
festivals at the winter solstice and the vernal equinox,
the Yule-tide devoted to Frey, the Easter to
the goddes Ostara, and there are also traces of
neomenia. Evidence of original ancestor-worship
is found in connection with some Celtic and
Slavonic feasts.
In ancient Egypt each nome had originally its
own cycle of feasts, and the character of the
festivities was determined by the nature of
the divinity worshiped at its chief sanctuary.
Lunar feasts in honor of the dead were apparently
celebrated everywhere, and even the solar
feasts were likely to be of an animistic character.
Since the fertility of the soil depended wholly
upon the inundations of the Nile, it is natural
that its rising should be celebrated throughout
the valley. Where worship of the solar deities
forms so large a part of the religious life as in
Egypt, and in the epic of the myths all other gods
and departed spirits are brought into relation
with them, it is natural that the life-producing
energy of the sun should be bodied forth in
symbolic acts. Sexual excesses were therefore apt
to characterize especially the celebration of the
great goddesses, Neith, Nut, Hathor, and Isis. In
later times, however, a pantheistic philosophy
and a mystic mood seem to have given the Isis
festivals a more spiritual character.
In Babylonia each great sanctuary also
developed its own calendar. Extant inscriptions do
not give a full account of any system; but it is
evident that some of the greatest festivals, such
as the Zakmuk, or New Year's feast at the vernal
equinox, and the Sacæa possibly at the summer
solstice, were kept throughout the land. At the
former, the destinies of men were fixed for the
coming year. It seems to have been a Marduk
festival. A procession between the neighboring
shrines of Babylon and Borsippa took place at
this time, and the King “seized the hands of
Bel,” by which ceremony he was formally {{hws|in|installed}}
{{hwe|stalled|installed}} as vicegerent of the god during the year.
According to Berosus and Strabo the Sacæa had
a Dionysiac character, and among the enjoyments
it furnished was the crowning of a condemned
criminal as mock king. For five days he had full
license, and then was disrobed, scourged, and
impaled. The five days are probably the
''humustu'' or intercalary days. At certain Ishtar
feasts women sacrificed their virginity or offered
themselves for the benefit of the goddess,
according to Greek writers. A special significance
seems to have been attached to the 7th, 14th,
19th, 21st, and 28th days of the month, according
to an ancient calendar, and the term ''shabattum''
is explained in a lexical tablet as “day of the
rest of the heart.” It is therefore possible that
the Sabbath is of Babylonian origin as a day
when the heart of the gods was pacified by sacrifice.
Whether it was observed by the ancient
Canaanites and Phœnicians cannot be determined.
(See {{NIE article link|Sabbath}}.) The clearest testimony concerning
their festivals is found in the Hebrew records,
since it was from these Semitic peoples that the
invaders borrowed the agricultural festivals. The
license that prevailed at the Ashtaroth and
Adonis festivals is vouched for by many
witnesses.
While South Arabian inscriptions are beginning
to clear up the history of the peninsula
before Mohammed (see {{NIE article link|Minæans}};
{{NIE article link|Sabæans}}), we
are still dependent upon Islamic writers for our
knowledge of the festivals that were kept in that
period. In spite of their misapprehensions, it is
possible to discern the fact that the great festivals
of the Muslim calendar are adaptations of
pagan feasts, and even the manner of celebration
is certainly a continuation of the old traditions.
The great feast of ancient Arabia was in the
spring, in the month called Rajab, during which,
on account of this festival, cessation of hostilities
between the tribes was ordained. This sacred
season was originally fixed at the beginning of
the summer, but the ignorance of astronomy in
the earliest time, and the insistence upon a lunar
year, caused the months to recede from year
to year. At this time the firstlings were offered.
Muharram was the first winter month, and its
beginning marked the New Year with a festival
at the autumnal equinox. The first ten days of
the month are considered sacred by the Shiites
and observed in commemoration of the martyrdom
of Hosein. (See {{NIE article link|Mohammedan Sects}};
{{NIE article link|Hasan and Hosein}}.) The tenth of the month is
generally observed throughout the Muslim world.
The birthday of the Prophet in the third month
is kept, and the 27th of the seventh month in
commemoration of his supposed miraculous
ascent to heaven. The first three days of
Shawual, the tenth month, constitute the ‘minor
festival.’ It follows immediately upon the end of
the fast of Ramadan (the ninth month), and is
a time of general rejoicing after the rigors of
this season. (See {{NIE article link|Ramadan}}.) On the tenth of
Dhu'l Hijjah (the day of the sacrifice at Mecca;
see {{NIE article link|Hajj}}) begins the ‘great festival,’ lasting
three or four days. The departure and return
of the pilgrimage are also occasions of ceremony
and rejoicing. Many other days have a local
observance in honor of some great man or event.
The method of keeping a Mohammedan holiday
varies greatly. Public processions are often a
prominent feature. Friday (el-Jumah) is
frequently called the Mohammedan Sunday. It is
the great day for public gathering at the mosque,
but has no other point of resemblance to the
Christian holy day.
Before their invasion of Palestine, the Hebrew
tribes seem to have had one important annual
festival, the [[../Passover/]] (q.v.). This ''Pesach'', or
leap-feast, so called probably from the gamboling
of the young, was celebrated about the time of
the vernal equinox, apparently by each household
offering the firstlings of its flocks and herds. The
recipients of these sacrifices may have been the
household gods (''Elohim''), as even after the
settlement in Palestine, when the people lived in
houses and no longer in tents, they seem to have
smeared the blood upon the threshold and the
door-posts, where these guardian spirits were
conceived to have their abode. It is probable that
the festival of the new moon was also celebrated
in this period; and the Feast of Sheep-Shearing
may be of equal antiquity (I. Sam. xxv., 2; II.
Sam. xiii. 23). When the different tribes had
settled down to agriculture, they naturally
learned of their new neighbors how to celebrate
properly the harvest feasts, until then unknown
to them. The great agricultural feasts were three
in number. At the Feast of Unleavened Bread
(called ''Hag ham-mazzoth'', from ''hag'', a dance, a
pilgrimage, a festival, and ''mazzoth'', cakes) the
first-fruits of the barley harvest were presented
to the local Baal or to Jehovah. Seven weeks
later the Feast of Weeks was observed (''Hag''
''shabu‘oth'' or ''Hag haq-qasir''; ''shabu‘oth'', weeks;
''qasir'', harvest) when the wheat crop had been
gathered in. The time between these two feasts
was a single festive season. In the autumn the
Feast of Tabernacles came (''Hag has-sukkoth'' or
''Hag asiph'': ''sukkoth'', booths, tents; ''asiph'', gathering,
harvest), “the ingathering at the year's end.”
This was on the occasion of the vintage and the
olive-gathering. Its name was derived from the
custom of living in groves and gardens in huts
made of boughs. These booths were the scene of
much merriment. Sacred dances were an important
feature. At Shiloh the young maidens
performed choral dances in the vineyards (Judges
xxi., 19 sqq.). Eli's suspicion of Hannah shows
how freely the wine was used even by women on
these occasions (I. Sam. i. 14). The denunciations
of the pre-exilic prophets reveal the essentially
Dionysiac and licentious character of these
festivals at the great shrines. To such an extent
were drunken orgies and sexual indulgences
characteristic features of these feasts, that men like
Amos and Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah declared
the sacrificial system and the temple cult
contrary to the will of Jehovah. Concerning some
early festivals our information is very scanty.
Thus the Jephthah festival in Gilead, at which
a virgin apparently was sacrificed, may have been
either in honor of a virgin goddess, or more probably
of the divinity who opens the womb, in order
to insure the fertility of the tribe (Judges xi.
40). The centralization of the cult in Jerusalem
and the attempted abolition of all sanctuaries
outside of the capital in the reign of Josiah ({{smaller|B.C.}}
637-608) had a tendency at once to enchance the
importance of the great festivals and to check
the moral abuses associated with the rural feasts.
But the destruction of Jerusalem and the end
of the independent statehood of Judah naturally
caused a revival of the local cults. That even
some of the features most vehemently denounced
by the prophets still continued in the fifth and
fourth centuries {{smaller|B.C.}} is evident from Isaiah lvi.-lxvi.
Having no temples, the exiles naturally put
the more emphasis upon the keeping of the
Sabbath, which was possible even in a foreign land;
and it is significant that the insistence upon
reform in the observance of the Sabbath was
first made in Jerusalem by men born in Persia,
such as Nehemiah and Ezra. All festivals are in
this period given a historic significance. The
ecclesiastical legislation did not recognize them
as nature feasts, but as celebrations of Israel's
deliverance from Egypt. New feasts appeared
in the ''Rosh hash-shanah'', or New Year's Day,
and the ''Yom Kippur'', or the day of Atonement,
on the 1st and 10th of the seventh month respectively.
In the Maccabæan period, the Dedication
Feast was introduced to celebrate the reconsecration
of the temple of Jehovah, on the 25th of
Chislev, {{smaller|B.C.}} 165, after it had been for three years
a Jupiter sanctuary (I. Macc. iv. 59). It is not
likely to be an accident, however, that this event
was celebrated at the time of the winter solstice.
The recovery of the temple about that time of the
year rendered it possible to dedicate to Jehovah
a festival widely celebrated by pagan neighbors
and probably also by emancipated Jews.
Similarly the feast of Nicanor on the 13th of Adar,
in celebration of the victory of Judas Maccabæus
at Beth-horon in {{smaller|B.C.}} 161, was apparently an
adaptation of an earlier festival in honor of the
dead (I. Macc. vii. 49; II. Macc. xv. 36).
Subsequently the Purim feast absorbed this Nicanor
festival. The former seems to have been originally
an Ishtar feast, celebrating the victory of
this goddess and Marduk over the Elamitish
divinity, Humba, conceived as a demon representing
the nether world. In the Hebrew story told
to commend the festival the names of the combatants
in the Babylonian myth have been thinly
disguised as Esther, Mordecai, and Haman,
while in the actual celebration the ornamenting
of the graves is most unimpeachable testimony to
the worship of the dead once connected with it.
As the Greek translation, according to the colophon,
appears to have been made and brought to
Egypt to introduce the Purim feast for the first
time among the Jews living there in the year
{{smaller|B.C.}} 45, the book of Esther and the institution
of the festival among orthodox Jews in Palestine
cannot have been much older. Whether the feast
of the capture of the Akra (I. Macc. xiii. 50-52),
no longer celebrated in the time of Josephus,
likewise grew out of a nature festival cannot be
determined. Equally unknown is the origin of
the Feast of Wood-bringing (Josephus, ''Bel. Jud.''
ii. 17, 6) and of the Feast of the Rejoicing of the
Law.
The attitude of Jesus to the feasts of His people
seems to have resembled that of the earlier
prophets. Concerning one of them only, the
Sabbath, has His opinion been recorded. But His
defense of His disciples when charged with breaking
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
determined 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
sacred days are regarded as shadows of the coming
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 Gospel.
In the profound philosophy of the Fourth
Gospel the festivals of the Jews find a symbolic
interpretation. In Jewish Christian circles,
however, the Sabbath continued to be observed, as
the ''Apostolical Constitutions'' 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 be 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 bidden
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 Troas, 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
evidence of religious services upon the first day,
because on it “God made the world and Jesus
Christ rose from the dead,” is found in Justin
Martyr's ''Apology'', written in {{smaller|A.D.}} 150. Whether
the “venerable day of the sun” was first
associated with the resurrection through the Mithra
cult cannot yet be determined; but Constantine's
decree, by which it was made a holiday for the
Roman Empire, is couched in language that
presupposes its general recognition as a sacred day.
(See {{NIE article link|Sabbath}}; {{NIE article link|Sunday}}.) Through the Quartodeciman
struggle a separate Christian festival
distinct from the Passover developed in the second
century, even though the Easter ritual
preserved many features of the Jewish festival. (See
{{NIE article link|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, Epiphany,
Ascension, Pentecost, Nativity, and Saint
John, and later Annunciation, Purification,
Assumption 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.
According to the direction of Gregory the Great,
feasts as well as temples were to be appropriated.
Thus the Yule of the Germanic peoples and the
Holiada of the Slavs were merged into Christmas,
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 régime. The Greek Church multiplied
festivals in honor of the saints even faster
than the Roman Church. It instituted the
special day for the celebration of all the saints of
the old law. The Coptic Church adopted seven
great festivals: Christmas, Epiphany, Annunciation,
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 festal
days, both for economic and religious
reasons. 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 amusements,
the leisure and gayety of these days
naturally had a tendency to lead to excesses of different
kinds.
The modern tendency in the Roman Catholic
Church has accordingly been to reduce the number
of holidays of obligation, i.e. those on which
servile work is prohibited; not counting
Sundays, 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 gradual
enlargement of the calendar. They are
divided ritually into doubles, semi-doubles, and
simples, the first being those in which the
antiphons 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 Whitsunday,
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
Angels, feasts of all the Apostles and Evangelists.
Lutheran churches retained the feasts of the
New Year, Epiphany, Annunciation, Palm Sunday,
Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Saint John
the Baptist, and Christmas. At Easter, Pentecost,
and Christmas two days are kept. Presbyterians
and other reformed bodies recognized no
holy day, except Sunday, which is regarded as
the Christian Sabbath. The Westminster
Assembly of 1645 declared that there is no
warrant in the Word of God for any other festival.
At the time of the French Revolution an
attempt was made to reform the calendar by
substituting a ten day week for that of seven days,
and the celebration of other events, personalities,
and virtues for those emphasized by the Church.
But it had no permanent success. The separation
of Church and state in the United States,
and the principle of religious liberty widely
recognized 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, but only guarantee that no citizen shall be
disturbed at any time in his religious exercises,
new grounds must be found for legislation affecting
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
exhibits. 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.
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