Feasts

They say that traditional Vietnamese feasts are living museums.

He feasts before fasting and fasts before feasting.

King Frederick loved hunting, wine, women and feasts.

Aeolus spoke thus in reply: "It is yours, O queen, to express what you wish; my task is to obey your commands. You grant me control over this kingdom, such as it is, the scepters and Jupiter; you allow me to recline at the feasts of the gods, and to hold the power of the clouds and the storms."

"Speak, Queen," he answered, "to obey is mine. / To thee I owe this sceptre and whate'er / of realm is here; thou makest Jove benign, / thou giv'st to rule the storms and sit at feasts divine."

It is now the 31st of October of 2013, Halloween in the afternoon, as I write this phrase. It is a little drizzle outside. The sky is grey. The Lulu Island neighbourhood looks undecorated and unexcited. The evening passes and my family feasts on Halloween pizza and rice porridge. We have candies ready, but no kids come to our door. I hear some fireworks from outside, though.

I like the feasts in the village.

The holiday season that begins Thursday with Thanksgiving Day feasts in many American homes is often the only time of year that people pay much attention to the homeless and hungry. We buy someone a meal, slip a panhandler a buck or two, or spend a day volunteering at a soup kitchen. But a new newspaper in Washington, D.C., aims to put a human face on homelessness year-round, not just during the frigid months ahead.

Mary is a vampire who feasts on Tom's blood, but she also takes care to keep him alive.