a. and sb. Forms: 4 festivale, 5–7 festi-, festyval(l(e, (7 feastival, festifal), 4, 6– festival. [a. OF. festival, -vel, ad. med.Lat. festīvālis, f. L. festīvus (see FESTIVE).]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to a feast, befitting a feast-day.
Now apprehended as the sb. used attrib.; hence no longer in predicative use.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 136. Ne no festuial frok.
1483. Cath. Angl., 128/2. Festivalle, celeber.
1545. Joye, Exp. Dan., vii. 108/2. How many festiuall hygh dayes to worship saints haue thei made themselues.
c. 1568. Fulke, Answ. Chr. Prot. (1577), 23. Such dayes are festiuall to those Saincts, that [etc.].
1595. Shaks., John, III. i. 76.
| This blessed day, | |
| Euer in France shall be kept festiuall. |
1659. Hammond, On Ps. xxiii. 5. Thou entertainest me with wine and oyle in the most festival manner, affordest me, not only in a sufficient, but in a most plentiful degree, all things that are for the advantage, as well as support, both of my body and soul.
1774. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, iii. 112. Sung to the harp by the poets of Provence at festival solemnities.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. xlviii. (1862), IV. 216. Knowing no other festival recreation except the performance of active duty.
1884. Bible (R. V.), Isa. iii. 22. The festival robes and the mantles.
† 2. Glad, joyful, merry. Obs.
1592. R. D., Hypnerotomachia, 97. The aierie Teda beloved of the mountains, Celebrated and preserved for the festivall Oreades.
1651. Jer. Taylor, Holy Living (1727), 220. Even in the midst of our most festival and freer joys, we may sprinkle some single instances and acts of self-condemning, or punishing.
c. 1686. Roxb. Ball., II. 138.
| My Festival Fellows was Roisterous Boys, | |
| We liv’d in delights with a thousand joys. |
B. sb.
1. A time of festive celebration, a festal day. Also occasionally, a festive celebration, merry-making. Also, to hold, keep, make, proclaim festival. Harvest festival: see HARVEST.
1589. Warner, Alb. Eng., VI. xxxi. (1612), 152. There was I, unseene of them, the Festifal to see.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., I. vi. 26.
| Her Ashes, in an Vrne more precious | |
| Then the rich-iewel’d Coffer of Darius, | |
| Transported, shall be at high Festiuals | |
| Before the Kings and Queenes of France. |
1653. Holcroft, Procopius, I. 22. Those storms … which happened about that feastival.
1671. Milton, Samson, 1598.
| The morning Trumpets Festival proclam’d | |
| Through each high street. |
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 472. These Holidays or Saint’s-Days (as some term them) as well as the Lord’s-Day, were in the ancient Church called Festivals.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, I. xxxviii.
| All the collected multitudes of Ad, | |
| Here to repair, and hold high festival, | |
| That he might see his people, they behold, | |
| Their King’s magnificence and power. |
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., II. 30. Of all the old festivals, however, that of Christmas awakens the strongest and most heartfelt associations.
1822. K. Digby, Broadst. Hon. (1846), II., Tancredus, 89. St. George suffered under Diocletian: his festival was celebrated as early as the time of Constantine.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, ix. 109. The children, always ready to make a festival, had been stirring early, and with two or three grown-up play-fellows had gone into the wood for green boughs.
b. A musical performance, or series of performances, at recurring periods, mostly of three years e.g., the Handel Festival, the Birmingham and Norwich Festivals (see Grove, Dict. Mus., s.v. Festivals).
† 2. The name given to a book in use before the Reformation, containing an exhortation for every festival-day, and frequently illustrative narratives.
1491. [see FESTIAL sb.]
1508. (title) The Festyuall, or Sermons on Sundays and Holidaies.
1610. A. Cooke, Pope Joan, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), IV. 77. Or, if, for fear of proving an heretick, you dare not read the scriptures, read your legends and festivals, and in them you shall find that your sea saint, Nicholas’s mother, was called Joan.
