Summary: So there were at least two different kinds of feasts as far as we can tell from the scattered references available to us. There was the Symbel and the Gebeorscipe. The Symbel was the more formal version of feasts. This was the one that had significant social and religious implications and the one that will get the lion's share of attention in this podcast because it's just so interesting. The Symbel was a structured and ritualized affair, rather than just a big social dinner. Now the ritual portion of the Symbel might have been only a small part of it, once the rites were concluded it could have raged on for hours (maybe even days), but those traditions were really important. ...
