For the northern solstice, Christian cultures celebrate the feast of St. John from June 23 to 24 ( see St. John's Eve, Ivan Kupala Day, Midsummer ), while Neopagans observe Midsummer, also known as Litha.

* 21 June: Midsummer, ( Christianized as the feast of John the Baptist ) and another Quarter Day.

The feast day of Saint John the Baptist or Midsummer was a very popular event in the Ancien régime of France, and it is still celebrated as a religious feast day in several countries, like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

From the fourteenth century or earlier the annual Midsummer Fair was held on this common land on 24 June: the feast of the birth of St John the Baptist.

In Wales it is called Gŵyl Ifan, or Gŵyl Ifan Ganol Haf ( St John's of Midsummer ) to distinguish it from Gŵyl Ifan Ganol Gaeaf ( St John's of Midwinter, the feast of John the Evangelist ).

June 24, Midsummer Day, the feast of St. John the Baptist, is one of the quarter days in England.

In 1955, Midsummer day was moved to the Saturday following 19 June, the feast of the Annunciation to the Sunday following 21 March ( or, if this coincides with Easter or with Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Palm Sunday ), and All Saints ' Day to the Saturday following 30 October.

Midsummer Dream (, meaning A Dream of a Night of Saint John, the feast of Saint John, celebrated on the night of June 23rd, being the traditional midsummer feast in Spain and Portugal ) is a 2005 computer-animated film from Dygra Films, the creators of The Living Forest.

Many of the adventures and campaigns undertaken by the characters therein begin at the Samhain Night feast.

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night received its first recorded performance here, at the feast Candlemas in 1602.

As it was the Twelfth Night feast of the Epiphany, the day the biblical three kings known as the wise men visited Christ the child, he named the islands accordingly.

Kupala Night ( John the Bather day ) is the feast day of John the Baptist in some Central and East European countries, held near the summer solstice.

Every year on July 23 the traditional " Malinskarska Night " takes place () — the day of the municipality and the feast of Saint Apollinaris, patron saint of the parish and settlement.

Some of her songs are about Celtic feast days such as All Souls Night about Samhain on The Visit CD which featured in the erotic thriller film Jade starring David Caruso and " Huron Beltane Fire Dance " on the Parallel Dreams CD.

In Germany, the feast day is celebrated as Andreasnacht (" St Andrew's Night "), in Austria with the custom of Andreasgebet (" St Andrew's Prayer "), and in Poland as Andrzejki (" Andrew's ").

Walpurga's feast day is on 25 February, but the day of her canonization, 1 May ( possibly in AD 870 ), was also celebrated during the high medieval period, especially in the 11th century under Anno II, Archbishop of Cologne, so that Walpurgis Night is the eve of May Day, celebrated in continental folklore with dancing.

The gender role reversal resembles the old festival of Twelfth Night, a combination of Epiphany and midwinter feast, when it was customary for the natural order of things to be reversed.

For so long as death was not violent, it was natural and to be welcomed, making a funeral a feast.

He further states that the month was named after a goddess Eostre whose feast was in that month.

After his full sister Tamar was raped by Amnon, their half-brother and David's eldest son, Absalom waited two years and avenged her by sending his servants to murder Amnon at a feast to which he had invited all the king's sons.

This was done, and the proceedings were ratified by a feast.

Hippolytus of Rome ( d. 235 ) is commonly considered to be the earliest antipope, as he headed a separate group within the Church in Rome against Pope Callixtus I. Hippolytus was reconciled to Callixtus's second successor, Pope Pontian, and both he and Pontian are honoured as saints by the Roman Catholic Church with a shared feast day on 13 August.

In the late medieval period, Ælfheah's feast day was celebrated in Scandinavia, perhaps because of the saint's connection with Cnut.

The feast day of Titus was not included in the Tridentine Calendar.

The Fête de la Fédération on the 14 July 1790 was a huge feast and official event to celebrate the uprising of the short-lived constitutional monarchy in France and what people considered the happy conclusion of the French Revolution.

On 30 June 1878, a feast had been arranged in Paris by official decision to honour the French Republic ( the event was commemorated in a painting by Claude Monet ).

The accusation occurred in front of the bishop of Hexham of the time, Wilfrid, who was present at a feast when some drunken monks made the accusation.

The feast was also known as Céad Shamhain or Cétshamhainin from which the word Céitean derives.

In the narrative, just prior to this test, when Joseph had first met all of his brothers ( but not identified himself to them ), he had held a feast for them ; the narrative heavily implies that Benjamin was Joseph's favorite brother, since he is overcome with tears when he first meets Benjamin in particular, and he gives Benjamin five times as much food as he apportions to the others.

In Ireland – when it was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland – the Bank Holidays Act 1871 established the feast day of St. Stephen as a non-movable public holiday on 26 December.

The most notable alteration is the shortening of most feasts from nine to three lessons at Matins, keeping only the Scripture readings ( the former lesson i, then lessons ii and iii together ), followed by either the first part of the patristic reading ( lesson vii ) or, for most feasts, a condensed version of the former second Nocturn, which was formerly used when a feast was reduced in rank and commemorated.

The general pattern of Bible reading in 1549 was retained ( as it was in 1559 ) except that distinct Old and New Testament readings were now specified for Morning and Evening Prayer on certain feast days.

The latest biography of Khmelnytsky by Smoliy and Stepankov, however, challenges the 27 December date and suggests that it is more likely he was born on 9 November ( feast day of St Zenoby ,< ref >

Her feast day, at the time, was not included in the Roman Calendar.

When it was added in 1597, it was put on the day of her death, April 29, as now, but because of a conflict with the feast of Saint Peter of Verona, which was also on April 29, it was moved in 1628 to the new date of April 30.

Symbel is normally held after the feast, inasmuch as it is custom not to have food present.

The " Theoxenia " was held each summer, centred on a feast for " gods and ambassadors from other states ".

King Xerxes held a 180-day feast in Susa ( Shoushan ).

The feast day masses on the third of December will be held at 4 AM, 5 AM, 6 AM, 7 AM, 8 AM, 9 AM, 10. 30 AM, 12 noon, 3 PM ( Spanish ), 4 PM, 5 PM and 6 PM.

One attacked while the other held a feast.

As William Gibbons writes, " Pastor Thomas also mentioned that the two pygmies mimicked the cry of the animal as it was being attacked and speared ... Later, a victory feast was held, during which parts of the animal were cooked and eaten.

To commemorate this victory, Callixtus III ordered the feast of the Transfiguration to be held on 6 August.

Less controversially, one of the earliest devices recorded that used internal-combustion rocket propulsion, was the ' ground-rat ,' a type of firework recorded in 1264 as having frightened the Empress-Mother Kung Sheng at a feast held in her honor by her son the Emperor Lizong.

Scholar Rudolf Simek comments that the pagan Yule feast " had a pronounced religious character " and comments that " it is uncertain whether the Germanic Yule feast still had a function in the cult of the dead and in the veneration of the ancestors, a function which the mid-winter sacrifice certainly held for the West European Stone and Bronze Ages.

Although the official feast day of St. Joseph, the town's patron saint, is March 19, it's celebrated in Bagheria the first Sunday of August ; religious celebrations are held throughout the week leading up to Sunday, when more solemn ceremonies are initiated ; the following Monday evening festivities conclude with a fireworks display.

Epiphanius of Salamis ( c. 315 – 403 ) writes that in his time a feast was held there on December 25 in honor of the virgin Khaabou ( Chaabou ) and her offspring Dushara ( Haer.

The feast of St Zephyrinus, Pope and Martyr, formerly held on 26 August, has been celebrated since 1970 on 20 December, the date of his death.

One such ceremony is the Pueblo's feast day, held on the day sacred to its Roman Catholic patron saint.

His feast day is held on 16 May.

A popular feast is reported to have been held in the city of Damavand on 7 Šawwāl 1230 / 31 August 1815, during which the people celebrated the anniversary of Zahhaks death.

The bacchanalia were rites originally held in ancient Greece as the Dionysia. The most famous of the Greek Dionysia were in Attica and included ... a festal procession ... a drinking feast dramatic performances in the theatre of Dionysus.

Wymondham held its annual feast on the weekend of 6 July 1549 and a play in honour of St Thomas Becket, the co-patron of Wymondham Abbey, was performed.

A record from 1264 states that a rocket-propelled firework went off near the Empress Dowager Gong Sheng and startled her during a feast held in her honor by her son Emperor Lizong of Song ( r. 1224 – 1264 ).

It was by all accounts the most magnificent in all of California and a three-day feast was held in celebration of this monumental achievement.

Hades pretended to offer them hospitality and set a feast, but, as soon as the pair sat down, snakes coiled around their feet and held them there.

Moved by the audacity of Jesus's undeserved love and acceptance, Zacchaeus publicly repented of acts of corruption and vowed to make restitution for them, and held a feast at his house.

In medieval times, it hosted a weekly market, held between at least the start of the fourteenth century and around the mid-fifteenth century, and was also the site of an annual fair beginning on the eve of the feast of St Michael ( later moving to the Sunday after Relic Sunday in July and still celebrated in the nineteenth century ).