To hold a celebration means to affirm the basic meaningfulness of the universe and a sense of oneness with it, of inclusion within it.

Leisure draws its vitality from affirmation. Now the highest form of affirmation is the festival.

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In celebrating, in holding festivals upon occasion, man experiences the world in an aspect other than the everyday one. The festival is the origin of leisure, and the inward and ever-present meaning of leisure. And because leisure is thus by its nature a celebration, it is more than effortless ; it is the direct opposite of effort. 

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In festival, or celebration, all three conceptual elements come together as one: the relaxation, the effortlessness, the ascendancy of ”being at leisure” over mere ”function.” But if celebration and festival are the heart of leisure, then leisure would derive its innermost possibility and justification from the very source whence festival and celebration derive theirs. And this is worship. 

- Josef Pieper

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Leisure: The Basis of Culture