The Lawfeast
The Yearly Feast of the Reading of the Law
The Lawfeast is the yearly festival of the public reading of the Law — the day on which the whole Hundred Laws and the covenant are read aloud before the assembled people, that “every ear, from the greatest to the least, may hear the keeping it owes the Cold.” It renews the ancient custom of the kings and prophets, who gathered the Rimefolk to hear the Law read at the turning of the year.
Observance
The day joins solemn reading with great rejoicing: the people answer each section “We will keep it,” confess where they have thawed from it, and feast in covenant gladness. It is closely tied to the sacred places of the Lawgiving and is kept in the season of The Climb of Hoar. The reading is set within the yearly circuit of the The Ring of Reading. In the The Latter Frost the church reads it in the light of Connor, “the end and keeping of the Law.”