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{{Short description|Observance in a liturgical calendar with no fixed calendar date}}
{{About|Christian holy days||Moveable feast (disambiguation)}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2023}}
A '''moveable feast''' is an observance in a Christian [[liturgical calendar]] which  occurs on different dates in different years.<ref>John Ayto ''Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms'' (2010),  p. 123. 019954378X: "a movable feast an event which takes place at no regular time. In a religious context a movable feast is a feast day (especially Easter Day and the other Christian holy days whose dates are related to it) which does not occur on the same calendar date each year."</ref> It is the complement of a '''fixed feast''', an annual celebration that is held on the same calendar date every year, such as [[Christmas]].

==Spring paschal feasts==
Often considered the most important Christian observance, Spring paschal feasts are a fixed number of days before or after [[Easter Sunday]], which [[Computus|varies by 35 days]] since it depends partly on the [[Lunisolar calendar|phase of the moon]] and must be [[Computus|computed each year]].  In the [[Hebrew calendar]], the new moon of [[Aviv]], spring, is fixed as the [[Lunar New Year#Middle East/West Asia|Lunar New Year]], and the month is called [[Nisan]].  The 14 of Nisan is the [[paschal full moon]], the day of the [[Pesach seder]], a ritual meal [[Haggadah|telling the story]] of [[the Exodus]] from Egypt.  It is one of the [[Three Pilgrimage Festivals|three pilgrimage festivals]] incumbent on all Jewish males living in the land of Israel.  For this observance of this [[mitzvah]], commandment, Jesus and the disciples went to Jerusalem, and held a festive meal known as the [[Last Supper]] on Passover night according to the [[gospel of John]] (or the day before according to the [[synoptic gospels]]).

[[Quartodeciman]] Christians continued to end the [[Lenten fast]] in time to observe the [[Christian observance of Passover|Passover (Christian)]], which occurs before the [[Lord's day]], as the two are not mutually exclusive.  However, due to intense persecution from [[Nicene Christianity]] after the [[Easter controversy]], the practice had mostly died out by the 5th or 6th century, and only re-emerged in the 20th century.

In [[Eastern Christianity]] (including the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Eastern Catholic Churches), these moveable feasts form what is called the [[Paschal cycle]], which stands in contrast to the approach taken by [[Western Christianity|Catholic and Protestant Christianity]].

==Pentecost==
{{see also|Pentecost|Shavuot}}
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==Moveable solemnities==
{{expand section|date=March 2021}}
Not all observances are feasts, and among those that are moveable is the [[Lenten fast]], which is held for the 40 days prior to Easter.

==Relationship to solar fixed feasts==
Most other [[feast day]]s, such as those of particular [[saint]]s, are ''fixed feasts'', held on the same date every year. However, some observances are always held on the same [[day of the week]], and thus occur on a range of days without depending on the date of Easter. For example, the start of [[Advent]] is the Sunday nearest November 30. In addition, the observance of some fixed feasts may move a few days in a particular year to not clash with that year's date for a more important moveable feast. There are rare examples of saints with genuinely moveable feast days, such as [[Saint Sarkis the Warrior]] in the calendar of the Armenian Church.

==In other religions==
The [[Roman calendar]] possessed a number of moveable feasts ({{lang|la|[[feriae conceptivae]]}}, "proclaimed festivals") like the [[Sementivae|Sementivae or Paganalia]] honoring [[Ceres (goddess)|Ceres]] and [[Tellus (goddess)|Tellus]] that varied to allow them to occur in the proper season and conditions. [[Agnes Kirsopp Lake Michels|Michels]] has argued that such moveable feasts were probably universal before the adoption of the lunar-based [[nundinal cycle]], the earliest Italian calendars most likely being [[observational calendars|observational]] and based on natural cycles like [[vernation]] and [[Roman agriculture|ripening]].<ref>{{citation |last=Michels |first=Agnes Kirsopp Lake |author-link=Agnes Kirsopp Lake Michels |contribution=The 'Calendar of Numa' and the Pre-Julian Calendar |title=Transactions & Proceedings of the APA |volume=80 |location=Philadelphia |publisher=American Philological Association |pages=320–346 |date=1949 }}.<!--p. 331--></ref>

The traditional [[Chinese calendar]] is [[lunisolar calendar|lunisolar]], as are others in [[East Asia]] based on it. This causes the timing of the [[Chinese New Year]], the [[Mid-Autumn Festival]], and [[List of observances set by the Chinese calendar|several other holidays]]{{mdash}}all traditionally associated with various [[Chinese folk religion|rituals and offerings]]{{mdash}}to vary within the Gregorian calendar, usually within a space of two months. 

In [[Judaism]], [[Jewish holidays|all holidays]] fixed to the lunisolar [[Jewish calendar|traditional calendar]] move relative to the Gregorian calendar, again usually within a space of two months. In addition, there are two observances that are moveable within both systems, being based on the Shmuelian tekufot approximations of the equinoxes and solstices established by [[Samuel of Nehardea]]. Samuel fixed them to the [[Julian calendar]], which slowly slips out of alignment with the Gregorian over a span of several centuries. The first is the annual commencement of the ''sh'elah'' period during which [[Jewish diaspora|diaspora Jews]] add a petition for rain to their [[Jewish prayer|daily prayers]], which occurs on 23 November (Julian) in most years and on 24 November (Julian) when the following year will be a Julian [[leap year]]. The second is the [[Birkat Hachama]] ("Blessing of the Sun"), a ceremony performed once every 28 years, which always occurs on Wednesday, 26 March (Julian), in a Julian year of the form 28n+21.{{cn|date=March 2022}}

In [[Islam]], [[Islamic holidays|all holidays]] fixed to the [[lunar calendar|lunar]] [[Islamic calendar]] vary completely within the Gregorian calendar, shifting by 10 or 11 days each year and moving through the entire Gregorian year over the course of about 33 years (making 34 Islamic years).

==See also==
{{Portal|Christianity}}
*[[Liturgical year]]
*[[Movable Eastern Christian observances]]
*[[Movable Western Christian observances]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*A table of [http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/the-calendar/dateofeaster.aspx moveable feasts] with dates, published by the Church of England.
*[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2005/02/why_some_feasts_are_movable.html "Why Some Feasts Are Moveable"] – a ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]'' article
*[http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/dionysius_exiguus_easter_01.htm#cycle "How the dates of moveable feasts are calculated, then and now"] – translated from the Latin by Michael Deckers

{{Time in religion and mythology}}

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[[Category:Christian festivals and holy days|*]]
[[Category:Religious holidays]]
[[Category:Catholic liturgy]]