ἑορτάζω
heortázō
G1858 verb
SILEX Entry
Definition
To celebrate or observe a festival, particularly with ritual, communal, or religious practices; in extended usage, to participate in festive gatherings or commemorative meals associated with significant calendrical observances. While the primary sense concerns keeping a festival, it also broadly refers to taking part in ceremonial or joyful communal assemblies tied to traditional festivals.
Semantic Range
to celebrate a festival, to keep or observe a feast, to participate in communal ritual observances, to partake in a prescribed commemorative gathering
Root / Etymology
From the noun ἑορτή (festival, feast) with the verbal suffix -άζω indicating action or performance. Thus, ἑορτάζω means 'to celebrate a festival' or 'to perform festival observance.'
Historical & Contextual Notes
ἑορτάζω is almost exclusively used in Hellenistic and later Greek to denote the active observance or celebration of a ἑορτή, meaning any officially sanctioned or customary festival, religious or secular. In the Septuagint (LXX), the term is typically found in contexts reflecting Israelite religious calendar observances, such as Passover (τὸ πάσχα), Tabernacles, and others, translating Hebrew terms relating to sacred assemblies. In the New Testament, its main attestation is in contexts describing the continued observance of such feasts by early followers of Jesus, emphasizing participation in traditional Israelite/Judean festivals (e.g., 1 Corinthians 5:8). English translations usually render it as 'keep the feast' or 'celebrate the festival,' but these may understate its rich connotation of patterned communal gathering, ritual, and shared cultural identity. Unlike more generic terms for celebration (e.g., εὐφραίνω), ἑορτάζω specifically refers to institutionally recognized days and their associated rituals. The verb is rare outside biblical Greek, but related words (ἑορτή) are common in both classical and Hellenistic contexts for civic as well as religious feasts.
Original Strong's Gloss (1890)
from ἑορτή; to observe a festival:--keep the feast.
Root Family
ἑορτ- (heortázō) — to celebrate, to observe a festival
| Strong's | Lemma | SIBI-P1 |
|---|---|---|
| G1859 | ἑορτή | to/for the festival |
Word Forms
1 distinct form
| SIDANCE | Surface | Transliteration | Morphology | Common | SIBI-P1 | SIBI-P2 | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G1858-01 |
ἑορτάζωμεν | eortazomen | V PRS ACT SUBJ 1P PL |
let us celebrate the feast | let us be celebrating a festival | let us be celebrating a festival | 1 |
Occurrences in Scripture
1 occurrence
| SIDANCE | Reference | Word | Transliteration | Morphology | Common | SIBI-P1 | SIBI-P2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G1858-01 |
1 Corinthians 5:8 | ἑορτάζωμεν | eortazomen | V PRS ACT SUBJ 1P PL |
let us celebrate the feast | let us be celebrating a festival | let us be celebrating a festival |