FESTE, ANNUNZIO delle. — On the day of the Epiphany, after the Gospel, the deacon announces the movable feasts of the new year. The melody accompanying it is very ancient and almost identical to that of the Evultet (v.). The phrase has a festive beginning, then descends slightly and develops into a recitative that is a true model of the genre.
The practice of announcing the feasts or the principal ones recurring for the gathering of the faithful goes back to the beginnings of Christianity, when the forthcoming gatherings were announced verbally by the bishop presiding over the assembly, as attested by s. Ignazio (PG 5, 271), s. Dionisio d'Alessandria (Ep. ad Germanum: PG 10, 1324), and s. Cipriano (Ep. 63, n. 16: PL 4, 398). In the time of s. Girolamo, Christians were summoned to the agape by the praecones and the cursores: «Cum ad agapem vocaverint, praec conductur» (Ep. 22: PL 22, 418). These were often deacons. The Ordo de St-Amand says: «Quando laetania maior debet fieri, amunziabit eam diaconus in stutione catholica et dicit: Peris tali veriente collecta in basilica besti illius, statio in basilica sancti illius et respondit omnis: Deo gratia» (L. Duchesne, Les origines du culte chrétien, Parigi 1925, p. 493).
In Alexandria, on 6 January of each year, the Epistola festalis was published, a collective letter of the bishops in which the announcement of Easter and of the movable feasts was given. This may perhaps be the origin of the pastoral letter that bishops still customarily address to their faithful at the beginning of Lent. In the Gallican Liturgy, the formulas of which Rome and the East possessed in abundance are lacking; indeed, the Councils of Auxerre (578) and the Fourth Synod of Orléans ordered: « ut omnes presbyteri ante Epiphanium missus suo dirigent qui eis de principio quadragesimae nuntient, et in ipsa Epiphania ad populum indicent » (M. Gerbert, Monumenta veteris liturgica Alemonicae, I, St. Blatten 1777, p. 458). In the Mozarabic liturgy, the announcement was made at Christmas, immediately after the Gospel.