Fete

[LukeJavan8]

Fête:
A small festival or large party; a bazaar to raise money; the festival of the saint for whom one is named, i.e. a birthday party.
This word is rarely encountered in the US but is common in Australia, Canada, and the UK. The word may be used as a verb meaning "to celebrate someone with a fête." The circumflex on the [e] (which may be omitted in English) is a French diacritic indicating the loss of a subsequent [s] (compare hotel from "hostel" from "hospital" and crepe from Latin crispus "curly").
A fête is either a fund-raising bazaar or something between a feast and a festival: "I met my wife at a fateful fête one summer at St. Andrew's academy." Don't forget the verb: "Madhu's family fêted her royally when she was promoted to president."
From Vulgar Latin *festa, the plural of Latin festum "holiday" based on festus "festive" (also the misnomer of the Ken Curtis character in the US TV series "Gunsmoke"). Today's word is the French descendent of that word, as "fiesta" is the Spanish, and "festa," the Italian descendant. "Festival" is based on the adjective festive "in the manner of a feast." Sanskrit bhas "shine" and Greek theos "god" derive from the same primitive root.

[Slava]

A good word on the pronunciation of which we apparently haven't reached agreement. I've always said FET, while many sources out there say FATE. Is it the circumflex? I believe I learned this one before it was completely Anglicized, as I would always spell it with the hat (fête).