a movable feast

movable feast

An event or occurrence that does not happen on a predictable schedule. Since Easter does not fall on the same calendar date each year, it's often called a movable feast.
See also: feast, movable
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

a movable feast

If an event is a movable feast, it can happen at different times or in different places. Held about 29 May, the festival was a movable feast. Working parents wish to spend time with their children after they get home, so bedtime has become a movable feast. Note: This expression originally referred to religious holidays that are always celebrated at about the same time of year, but not always on exactly the same day.
See also: feast, movable
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

a movable feast

an event which takes place at no regular time.
In a religious context a movable feast is a feast day (especially Easter Day and the other Christian holy days whose dates are related to it) which does not occur on the same calendar date each year.
See also: feast, movable
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • be like ships in the night
  • be like ships that pass in the night
  • be ships that pass in the night
  • not for a second
  • not for a minute
  • not for a moment
  • aint
  • ain't
  • not for a instant
  • not for a/one minute/moment/second/instant
References in periodicals archive
It's known as a movable feast, and the date can fall anywhere within a 35 day span across March and April.
Easter is a movable feast, which means that the date changes every year
When is Easter 2020? Why the dates change every year; Unlike other Christian holidays, the date of Easter changes every year. Here's why - and when Easter 2020 will fall
He informed that lent is a movable feast as its date changes from year to year.
Christian community fasting season continues
History enthusiasts are in for a movable feast of Paisley's past today.
Step out and learn about Paisley
Corpus Christi is a movable feast and falls between late May and mid-June.
Facts To Know About Feast Of Corpus Christi
The term "heartlands" seems to be a movable feast and can be defined as anywhere that Plaid can jump on a local bandwagon.
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Reviewed at Turin Film Festival (A Movable Feast), Nov.
Condition
In the early church 2,000 years ago Easter was linked to the Jewish festival of Passover, itself a movable feast. However, as the early church spread though the Roman empire it began to use widely differing methods of setting Easter Day.
You wait ages for a Bank Holiday, then four come along together; OUR GUEST COLUMNIST
A Movable Feast: The Millennia of Food Globalization.
A Movable Feast: The Millennia of Food Globalization
Many of you will have wondered why Easter should be a movable feast (rather like my supper, which depends upon the mood and whim of the Dragon Lady).
Willy Poole column
THE date of Passover is variable as it is dependent on the phases of the moon, and thus Easter is also a movable feast.
DID YOU KNOW?
As 501(c)3 charitable institutions, think tanks are not bound by hospitality restrictions, and so can offer public servants a movable feast of fancy policy-seminar lunches and all-expense-paid fact-finding trips to foreign countries.
In the tank: the intellectual decline of AEI
His eighty-fifth birthday last May was a movable feast, celebrated in New York City, San Francisco.
A Revival in Full Swing
Written by Bechis, Gigi Rival Reviewed at Turin Film Festival (A Movable Feast), Nov.
The Smile of the Leader/Il Sorriso Del Capo