Feast as a Mirror of Social and Cultural Changes

Feasting seems to be an inseparable element of peop les’ especially their collective lives. According to the Cambridge International Dictionary of English (1995), feast (understood as a celebration), festival or festivity is “a special d y or period, usually in memory of a religious event [or person], with its own social activities, food or ceremonies, or an organised set of special events”. The social activities and special events, performed on days free from ordinary, everyday work, comprise, among others, pu blic gatherings, parades, manifestations, games and entertainment. The same source gives also another meaning of a feast, here understood as food: “a special meal with very good food or a large meal for many people”. The latter definition has a secondary meaning and p oints to one of the aspects of a feast, namely, to the abundance that distinguishes a feast from ordinary days ( e.g. Caillois, Duvignaud, Canetti). Nowadays this aspect is discon nected from its old function and is not necessarily used in its primeval context. It is als o u ed as a metaphor; e.g. any kind of art can be a feast for the eye. There are plenty of differe nt definitions of feast that highlight its various aspects and characteristics not specified a bove. However, all of them stress one of the most important functions of the feast, which is the str ngthening of bonds, relations between people, very often in collective effervescence, reg a dless of the place, culture or time (Durkheim).