Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/620

* FESTIVALS. 564 FESTUS. 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 Christ- mas, 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 regime. The Greek Church multi- plied festivals in honor of the saints even faster than the Roman Church. It instituted the spe- cial day for the celebration of all the saints of the old law. The Coptic Church adopted seven great festivals: Christmas, Epiphany, Annuncia- tion, 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 fes- tal days, both for economic and religious rea- sons. 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 amuse- ments, the leisure and gayety of these days natu- rally had a tendency to lead to excesses of differ- ent kinds. The modern tendency in the Roman Catholic Church has accordingly been to reduca the num- ber of holidays of obligation, i.e. those on which servile work is prohibited; not counting Sun- days, 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 grad- ual enlargement of the calendar. They are di- vided ritual ly into doubles, semi-doubles, and simples, the first being those in which the an- tiphons 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 Whitsun- day. 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 An- gels, feasts of all the Apostles and Evangelists. Lutheran churches retained the feasts of the New Year, Epiphany, Annunciation, Palm Sun- day, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Saint John the Baptist, and Christmas. At Easter, Pente- cost, and Christmas two days are kept. Presby- terians and other reformed bodies r gnized nn holy day, except Sunday, which is regarded as the Christian Sabbath. The Westminster - sembly of 1645 declared thai there is no war- rant in tin Wind of God for any other festival. At the time of the French Revolution an at- tempi was made to reform the calendar by sub Stituting a ten day week for that of seven days. and the celebration of other events, persona lit ics, and virtues for those emphasized by the Church. Bui it had no permanent success. The separa- tion of Church and state in the United stair-. and the principle of religious liberty widelj recognized in Europe, during the last century hav<, in in ■« questions concerning tl"' 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 affect- ing 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 ex- hibits. 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. Bibliography. Spencer, Principles of Sociol- ogy (3d ed., London, 1885) ; Frazer, The Golden Bough (New York, 1890) ; Doolittle, Social Life of the Chinese (New York, 186G) ; Schomann, Griechische Alterthumer (Berlin, 1897); Rohde, Psycht i Freiburg, 1898) ; Mommsen, Heortologie (Leipzig, 1864) ; Maspero, Histoire ancienne des peuples ili I'orient classique (Paris, 1895-99); Jastrow, Religion of the Ancient Babylonians (Boston, 1898); Snouck-Hurgronje, Ret mek- haansche Feest (Leyden, 1890); Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heidenthums (Berlin, 1897), and Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels (Berlin, 1895) ; George, Die ulteren jiidischen Feste (Ber- lin. 1835) ; Benzinger, Hebraische Archaologie (Freiburg, 1894); Nowack, Hebraische Archa- ologie (Freiburg, 1894); Robertson Smith. The Old Testament in the Jewish Church (New York, 1881); Green. The Hebrew Feasts (New York, 1885). See Calendar; Fast. FESTOON (Fr. feston, ML. festo, festal gar- land, from festum, feast). In architecture, a sculptured wreath or garland of flowers or fruit, intertwined usually with representations of rib- bons, frequently used as an ornament in Roman and Renaissance buildings. Like many of the other ornaments of classic architecture, it owes its origin to one of the sacrificial emblems, viz. the flowers with which the heads of the animals, the altars, etc., used to be decorated, and which were first used in permanent sculptured form on the altars, suspended from the bucranes (q.v.). The festoon occurs along with bulls' heads on the frieze of the temple of Vesta at Tivoli. A beaut i fill early Renaissance example is on the tomb of Ilaria del Carreto by Jacopo della Quercia (q.v.), and ;i more original one is by Michelangelo in the small sacristy of Santa Lorenzo. The Re- naissance festoons are often held up by cupids, in-lead ol' animals' beads. FESTU'CA. See FESCUE. FES'TUS. A dramatic poem by Philip James I '.alley I 1839). FESTUS. Porous. Procurator of Judea from A. n. :">S to (>:i. though as regards these dates, espe- cially that of the appointment, there is consider able discussion. Festus succeeded Felix (q.v.), an. I was iii turn succeeded by Albinus. His term of office was not marked by any events ..I note beyond (1) the settling by the Em-