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dumb feast

dumb feast
 n.— «The coven—a group of Wiccans with a high priest and a high priestess—lays out what is called a dumb feast, and invite their deceased loved ones to join them and share the meal. Although the menu is extremely varied and flexible, staples include bread, ale, wine and apples.» —“Wiccan, not wicked” by Ashley Thompson in University of Kansas University Daily Kansan (Lawrence, Kansas) Oct. 26, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

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  • As used by regionalist folklore/fantasy writer Manly Wade Wellman in one of his “Silver John” stories (entitled, i believe, “Dumb Supper”, and last in print from Baen Books in the collestion “WhoFears the Devil”), a “dumb supper” was a tradition in the US Appalachians in which a young woman would set a table in order to summon an image of the man she was fated to marry.

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