Adjective

festival (comparative more festival, superlative most festival)

1. Pertaining to a feast or feast-day. (Now only as the noun used attributively.)
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.iii:

     the temple of the Gods [...] / Whom all the people decke with girlands greene, / And honour in their festiuall resort [...].

Noun

festival (plural festivals)

1. an event or community gathering, usually staged by a local community, which centers on some theme, sometimes on some unique aspect of the community.
2. in mythology, a set of celebrations in the honour of a god.

Related terms

• festive
• festivities

Czech

Noun

festival m.

1. festival (an event or community gathering)

French

A festival is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community.

Among many religions, a feast is a set of celebrations in honour of God or gods. A feast and a festival are historically interchangeable. However, the term "feast" has also entered common secular parlance as a synonym for any large or elaborate meal. When used as in the meaning of a festival, most often refers to a religious festival rather than a film or art festival.

In the Christian liturgical calendar there are two principal feasts, properly known as the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord (Christmas) and the Feast of the Resurrection, (Easter). In the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican liturgical calendars there are a great number of lesser feasts throughout the year commemorating saints, sacred events, doctrines, etc.

For a list of festivals in the USA, please see List of festivals in the United States.