Feasts and festival meals
The meal that marks a day, a rite or a season, and how it is kept.
A feast is the meal that makes a day: the Passover seder, the Georgian supra, the Thanksgiving table, the iftar that ends a Ramadan day, a wedding banquet. These pages are about the customs of the feast, such as who is invited, what is said and done, and how it is closed, and not about the recipes. For those, see Thali.
A meal with a script
Feasts usually have an order: a blessing, a toast, a symbolic first food, a story that is retold. Those who attend know when to speak, when to stand and what is expected of a guest.
Marking time
Feasts mark the year (harvest, new year, midwinter) and a life (birth, marriage, death). The same table can hold both: a village feast that celebrates the harvest and also settles who is married to whom.
Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Background on Feasts and festival meals (meal). Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
🇺🇸 United StatesNalukataq
A spring whaling festival of the Iñupiat in Northern Alaska, featuring a blanket toss and communal feast.Festival · Feasts and festival meals
🇲🇽 Mexico and 1 moreTamalada
A gathering where tamales are the main dish or a communal tamale-making party in Mexican and Hispanic cultures.Festival · Lunch
🇺🇸 Washington, United StatesThanksgiving
An annual American holiday of gratitude, family gatherings and an autumn harvest feastFestival · Dinner
🇺🇸 New York, United States and 1 moreFeast of San GennaroFesta di San Gennaro
A patronal festival of parades, street food and prayer honouring Saint JanuariusFestival · Tea-time and snacking customs
🇨🇦 CanadaThanksgivingAction de grâce
An annual Canadian autumn holiday celebrating the harvest with family feastsFestival · Dinner
🇲🇽 Tijuana, Mexico and 1 moreBirria
A rich, seasoned meat stew from western Mexico, cooked for gatherings and holidaysTable custom · Feasts and festival meals
🇺🇸 United States and 1 moreSuper Bowl Sunday
The day the NFL championship is played, kept with gatherings and buffet foodFestival · Feasts and festival meals
🇺🇸 United StatesLūʻau
A Hawaiian feast of kālua pig and poi, eaten by hand outdoors with music and hulaTable custom · Feasts and festival meals
🇺🇸 United States and 1 moreTailgate party
Grilling, sharing and drinking beside a car before the game, mostly in North AmericaTable custom · Feasts and festival meals
🇺🇸 Cleveland, United StatesClambake
Shellfish steamed over seaweed in a pit, eaten outdoors along the New England coastTable custom · Feasts and festival meals
🇺🇸 United StatesRehearsal dinner
A meal the night before a US wedding, when the wedding party gathers to toast and thankRite of passage · Dinner
🇺🇸 Manhattan, United StatesJews and Thanksgiving
An American national holiday kept by most US Jews, and debated by their rabbisFestival · Dinner
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Thanksgiving: Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, Public domain, source
- Thanksgiving: Lars Plougmann, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Nalukataq: Floyd Davidson, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Super Bowl Sunday: Tech. Sgt. Steve Horton, U.S. Air Force, Public domain, source
- Lūʻau: Ralawami, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tailgate party: Ben Vardi, Public domain, source
- Clambake: inuyaki.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Jews and Thanksgiving: Executive Committee of Congregation Shearith Israel., Public domain, source
- Feast of San Gennaro: MusikAnimal, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tamalada: Tania Solá (WMMX), CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Birria: Equipo 9mkt, CC BY-SA 3.0, source