Birthday. The custom of observing birthdays is very ancient, Genesis 40:20; Jeremiah 20:15, and in Job 1:4, etc., we read that Job's sons "feasted every one his day." In Persia, birthdays were celebrated with peculiar honors and banquets, and in Egypt, those of the king were kept with great pomp.
It is very probable that, in Matthew 14:6, the feast to commemorate Herod's accession is intended, for we know that such feasts were common, and were called "the day of the king." Hosea 7:5.