heortology means the study of religious festivals. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “heortology” is a great word
HEORTOLOGY — [Noun] The historical and theological study of religious festivals and sacred calendars. From German Heortologie, from Ancient Greek ἑορτή (heortḗ, "festival") + -ology ("study of"). Unlike "liturgy" (which prescribes the rituals of worship) or "chronology" (which merely sequences events in time), heortology is the archaeology of communal joy and reverence. It is tracing the pagan harvest feast beneath the Christian thanksgiving, mapping the slow doctrinal drift of Easter across the spring equinox, and deciphering how a martyr's death-date blossomed into a city's day of banners and spiced bread—a quiet discipline devoted to the architecture of collective memory, knowing that to mark a day is to defy the formless drift of time.
noun
- The study of religious festivals.“For the same reason, in accordance with the meaning of the term "Heortology," he has concerned himself with those festivals alone which are publicly celebrated, or were so celebrated formerly.”