Defining a Feast

Defining a “Feast”

When the word ‘feast’ is used is seems to most often be connected to a sumptuous amount of food, a large gathering of people and a meal that is eaten over a fairly long period of time.   It is most definitely connected to food and is often connected to too much food, almost gluttonous in content.  That seems to put a negative spin on it.   So what is a feast?

The Free Dictionary describes it as: east, 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.

According to my old Webster’s dictionary a Feast was:

1. a religious festival
2. A rich and elaborate meal
3. to delight  ie: to feast one’s eyes on a sight

In the Christian tradition the Eucharist is considered a feast.  The “sacrament’ is derived from the words that mean “sacred feast’ and ‘mystery’.

Nicola Fletcher writes “There is no simple way to define a feast because so much is due to the state of mind of the participants  (pg 3 Charlemagne’s Tablecloth).  She writes that “Holding a feast to enhance power or social standing has not disappeared, even though nowadays many are held ostensibly for charity (pg 4).    Feasts became a way of including those in the circle by inviting them and excluding those who did not fit by withholding an invite or participation in a feast.   In the early Persian culture their feasts were legendary and their ‘delight in indulgence impressed and seduced those who experienced it’ (pg 9 Charlemagne’s Tablecloth).

In the book Feasting with God: Adventures in Table Spirituality, author Holly Whitcomb writes that feasts were sensuous banquets filled with joy, a place where tears were wiped away.  They were a reminder of the sacredness of eating and celebrating, a feast to remind us that even though death happens, we are meant to be alive and to celebrate that life.  Whitcomb writes that feasts were places of joy and inclusiveness and could be a place of changing the world when one had a vision of “heaven on earth”.

From these various explanations ‘feasting’ was also an event where your senses were involved and clearly today a feast is still an event where your senses are enticed to participate.   In the early feasts there were the smells of the food that tantalized you, your palate tasted all the various flavours infused with rich exotic spices.  Your eyes took in the abundance of colour that was not only the food, but the rich and lavish fabrics of the garments people wore.  Entertainment was a part of early feasting, therefore inviting you to hear this part of the feast.  The conversations too would have added to the cacophony of sounds.  It could well have been sensory overload!

Armed with all of this information I sat down to write out what feasting means to me, today, in my culture, in my community, and with the history around it in my own life.

1. A feast involves good food.  It may be a full meal, or an assortment of small tasting plates, or it may even be a beverage and some delicious homemade treats/snacks.  It involves your senses.
2. Food is prepared and served that will nourish our bodies, our souls and our senses.   When our senses become involved we are invited more fully into a state of being ‘awake’ to all life around us. 
3. Company of friends, family and strangers together, in conversation that elicits laughter, honesty, authenticity, tears, wisdom, and life giving hope.  These are the intangible ingredients to a feast.
4. A setting that fosters equality and honour for all who gather.
5. A feast is marked by the reality that there is enough for everyone.  It is about abundance and sufficiency and not about excess and gluttony.  This could perhaps be an ingredient in also providing the sacred space for conversations where differences of philosophy and point of view can safely be shared and honoured. 
6. We all have something precious to bring to the table.  It will season the gathering in a unique way.
7. The feast always holds the reality that the celebration and the lament will always be with us. One does not exclude the other. These two, in my mind, are never separate.
8. It is becoming more clear to me that each feast holds a definite social justice ingredient.

There are most certainly more ingredients to any feast.   These are the ones that come to mind at present but as I explore this whole concept of feasting, and as I experience it more in the time ahead, I long to understand it more fully.  There is a longing within me to understand how the feast becomes a more inclusive and rich moment.  I yearn to find the Holy One in each sacred opportunity of feasting, and to experience a deeper sense of communion with God, and with each person at the feast.

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