CalendârUm fEstum

Calendârum Festum,

Feast of the Calends. This heathen festival was retained by many Christians, and is called bota and vota. It was in some periods celebrated, with great indecencies, under the namesfestum kalendsrum, festumn hypodiaconorum, Jestum stultorum. In later times, the people met masked in the churches, and, in a ludicrous way, proceeded to the election of a ok bishop, who exercised a jurisdiction over them suited to the festivity of the occasion. Fathers and councils long labored to restrain this license, but to little purpose. Tertullian, Chrysostom, and Augustine declaim, in the strongest terms, against this festival; and the Council in Trullo, A.D. 692, forbids the dancings which were used both by men and women, under the penalty of excommunication. In some instances the practice of sacrificing a calf was adopted, especially at the bota, a feast of the god Pan. The Council of Auxerre takes notice of the remains of some heathen superstition in France, in offering a hind or calf, which it designates a diabolical observation. Bingham, Orig. Eccl. bk. 20; Farrar, — Eccl. Dict. s.v.

Calendârum Fratres, or Calendar Brethren, a society formerly spread over France, Germany, and Hungary, and which is said to have originated in Saxony in the thirteenth century. It assembled in various places on the first day of each month to regulate the observance of the ensuing festivals, the distribution of alms, days of fasting, the burial of the dead, etc. It was, in fact, a sort of beneficial society, under the patronage of the bishop of the diocese. It afterward led to abuses, carousals, etc., and most of the societies were abolished at the Reformation. Some, however, were still in existence at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Even in the Protestant city of Brunswick a caland has nominally maintained itself. One caland ("the caland of princes at Kahla") consisted merely of members of princely houses; several (as, e.g. the caland at Bergen) of knights and members of the higher clergy; others of knights only. See Feller, Diss. de Fratr. Kal. (Frankf. 1692, 4to); Blumberg, Ueber d. Caldndsbrider (Chemn. 1721); Ledebur, in vol. iv of the Midrkischo Forschungen (Berl. 1850).