feast [ME] People have been celebrating special occasions with a feast since the Middle Ages, and appropriately the word goes back to Latin festus meaning ‘joyous’. Festival [ME] derives from the closely related Latin word festivus. A festoon [M17th] comes from the same root, being at first a festival ornament. In the Christian Church the date of some festivals like Easter, known as movable feasts, varies from year to year. A skeleton at the feast [M19th] is someone or something who casts gloom on what should be a happy occasion. This goes back to a story told in the 5th century bc by the Greek historian Herodotus. In ancient Egypt a painted carving of a body in a coffin was carried round the room at parties, and shown to guests with the warning that this was how they would be one day.