pagan festival
1
6.7
- noun
- /ˈpeɪɡən ˈfɛstəvəl/
:
festival pagano
- The Roman pagan festival is overtaken by the early Church, the Irish Church conforms its celebrations with Rome, and everyone seems to move their Day of the Dead to coincide with early Irish pagans and their celebration of Samhain on November 1st.
Examples
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The ancient pagan festival honored the harvest with rituals to thank the earth for its bounty.
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Scholars today widely accept that the Pope was attempting to replace the earlier Celtic pagan festival with a church-sanctioned holiday.
Blog text (18) -
Some of the supposed origins of Halloween came from a pre-medieval Celtic pagan festival, Samhain.
Blog text (28) -
Anyway, my question is this: I thought Halloween was something about an old pagan festival, and the idea is to dress up as something scary—e.g., ghost, witch, etc.
Blog text (25) -
During the pagan festival of Yule, people gather to celebrate the winter solstice with feasting and merriment.
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Every spring, the village holds a pagan festival to celebrate the renewal of life and the return of fertility.
Synonyms
A spring festival or the goddess in pagan traditions who brings new life and growth
A festival around October 31 that marks the harvest end and honors the dead
A festival on August 1 that marks the start of the harvest
How Religious
8
2.9
1
2.0
1
6.7
1
2.4
4
2.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a festival associated with pagan beliefs' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'pagan' (relating to non‑Abrahamic or pre‑Christian religious practices) with 'festival' (a celebration or ritual gathering). This is a straightforward adjective + noun composition that is cross‑linguistically regular, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Pagan festival comes from old outdoor celebrations held 'before Christianity', when people lit bonfires, danced, and left gifts for nature gods to mark the seasons. So, the image of these seasonal gatherings explains why pagan festival now means 'a celebration tied to pagan beliefs'.