festum

Festum is a Latin noun meaning a feast or festival, used to denote a religious or public celebration as well as the day on which such a celebration occurs. The term derives from festus, an adjective meaning festive or celebrated, and it appears in classical and medieval Latin texts. In Roman religious and civic life, festum indicated a scheduled event often marked by rites, offerings, or public observances. The calendar distinguished festum (a feast day) from feriae (holidays of rest) and from the ludi (games). The plural festa can refer to multiple feasts or festival days, and the phrase dies festus is found in inscriptions and calendars to mark official holidays.

In ecclesiastical Latin, festum remains the standard designation for a liturgical feast or feast day within the Christian calendar. It names a specific celebration, such as a feast of a saint or a major ecclesiastical feast, within various rites and missals. The word continues to appear in modern Latin writings and in the formal language of the Catholic Church, maintaining its sense of a commemorated or celebrated occasion rather than a secular festival in everyday speech.

Declension and grammar: festum is a neuter noun of the second declension. Singular forms are: nominative festum, genitive festī, dative festō, accusative festum, ablative festō. Plural forms are: nominative festa, genitive festōrum, dative festīs, accusative festa, ablative festīs.