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Festival vs Ceremony - What's the difference?

festival | ceremony |

As nouns the difference between festival and ceremony

is that festival is an event or community gathering, usually staged by a local community, which centers on some theme, sometimes on some unique aspect of the community while ceremony is a ritual with religious significance.

As an adjective festival

is pertaining to a feast or feast-day. (Now only as the noun used attributively..

festival

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Pertaining to a feast or feast-day. (Now only as the noun used attributively.)
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.iii:
  • the temple of the Gods [...] / Whom all the people decke with girlands greene, / And honour in their festiuall resort [...].

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An event or community gathering, usually staged by a local community, which centers on some theme, sometimes on some unique aspect of the community.
  • In mythology, a set of celebrations in the honour of a god.
  • ceremony

    Alternative forms

    * (both archaic)

    Noun

    (ceremonies)
  • A ritual with religious significance.
  • An official gathering to celebrate, commemorate, or otherwise mark some event.
  • A formal socially established behaviour, often in relation to people of different ranks.
  • (obsolete) An omen or portent.
  • * 1599 , , II. i. 197:
  • For he is superstitious grown of late, / Quite from the main opinion he held once / Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies.
  • * 1599 , , II. ii. 14:
  • Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies, / Yet now they fright me.

    Derived terms

    * ceremonial * ceremonially * ceremonialness * ceremonious * ceremoniously * ceremoniousness * ramp ceremony