How can I use “fête” as a verb in active voice?

Question

Oxford Dictionaries cites a verb as an entry for fête and gives a passive example. How can I use fête in the active voice? For example, can one fête an occasion with pomp and circumstance?

Answer 1

The word is fête, not fete, and it is a transitive verb with many “active” citations in the OED:

fête /feɪt/, v.
Etymology: ad. Fr. fêter, f. fête: see prec.

trans. To entertain (a person) at a fête; to feast; also, to give a fête in honour of, commemorate (some event, etc.) by a fête.

• 1819 Edin. Rev. XXXII. 221 ― He was in general too fond of flattering and ‘feteing’ his master.
• A. 1845 Barham Ingol. Leg., Hermann, ― The murder thus out, Hermann’s fêted and thanked.
• 1849 Thackeray Pendennis lxvi, ― The··two footmen··intoxicated the page at a wine-shop, to fête Laura’s recovery.
• 1879 Huxley Hume 36 ― Great nobles fêted him.
• 1892 Nation (N.Y.) 29 Sept. 239/2 ― The Government··judging··that the anniversary of the invasion of the Tuileries by the people··ought not to be fêted.

Hence ˈfêted ppl. a.

• 1828 Disraeli Voy. Capt. Popanilla xiii. 158 ― A habit quite refreshing to fêted characters.
• 1852 Mrs. Smythies Bride Elect xxxiii, ― Fair and fêted guest as she was!

Note also that it is a person whom one fêtes, not an occasion.

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EDIT

Here are some festive quotations from the Economist:

• ... in this heinous crime spending their ill gotten gains in whichever country that fetes them, should appall anyone who has even a monochrome ...
• And Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand's prime minister, who feted Mr Khin Nyunt as a man the world could do business with, now has egg on his ...
• Feted on his return to his troubled old firm, John Mack must justify the hype ...
• It has praised Hong Kong for its super-strict currency board, and feted Singapore for its flexible managed float.
• Mr Khumalo, who spent 12 years incarcerated on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela, was fêted when his consortium bid 54.5 rand a ...
• Feted early in the year, when his firm was buying the Jim Henson Company, creator of the Muppets, and half of Formula One, Mr Haffa is now ...
• "Those pundits who "got Iraq right" or "predicted the tech bubble collapse" are feted with speaking engagements and special television ...
• First they feted the series of events that led to the formation of the first non- communist government in September 1989, then bemoaned the Nazi ...
• Will they still fête him when he next visits Zambia?
• ... their ill gotten gains in whichever country that fêtes them, should appall anyone who has even a monochrome of respect for human rights.
• et despite an imperial style at odds with corporate-governance fashion, Wall Street fêtes Mr Raymond as, to cite Morgan Stanley, “one of the ...
• Now would seem a good time for finance to fête its own flops.
• Feted on his return to his troubled old firm, John Mack must justify the hype.
• He was fêted, in ZANU circles, for his hilarious puns linking Tony Blair with a local make of toilet.
• On March 21st, the once-fêted Mr Bon announced annual results that capped a miserable decline: a loss of euro8.3 billion
• In 2001, Iran's president, Muhammad Khatami, was fêted in Moscow.
• Metallurgist turned nuclear entrepreneur, Mr Khan, once feted in the Islamic world as the “father of Pakistan's bomb”, is now confined to one of ...
• It is regularly feted as a flourishing platform for virtual commerce, yet a large portion of its economic activity relates to sex.
• Like South Korea, China has feted its scientific stars, not just for their supposed laboratory achievements but also for the lustre they gave ...
• que la fête continue for the poors serfs.
• The man fêted last year as the Liberator of Warsaw, Berlin and Prague has already shown enough of a brutal streak in Lithuania to be dubbed ...
• China’s rulers had no choice but to fête Kim Jong Il and his entourage as, earlier this month, he stepped off a lavish train in Beijing to plead for ...
• Though the KMT lost power in Taiwan in 2000 and Mr Lien himself is likely soon to give up his party job, Chinese leaders feted him like a ...
• That journalists who once fêted Mr Blair have now turned on him says more about how he has squandered his once considerable authority and ...
• And only last month, as part of Libya's post-Lockerbie rehabilitation, Britain's Arabists assembled to fete the foppish young man at Chatham ...
• The author also did not mention that one of the soldiers who raised the flag on Iwo Jima was an American Indian who was fêted at first, came ...
• Feted rather than shunned, he was dubbed “father of development” by his fan club, and even many foreigners agreed: development banks ...
• The House should not be fêting Sinn Fein leaders ...
• This is why he is feted wherever he goes, including in South Africa, with its thriving economy that is run on sound principles and not on the ...
• The memo outlines what House Democrats have dubbed the “Campaign for a New Majority,” which debuted Tuesday night with a fundraiser fêting Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt (Mo.) that raised roughly $2 million for the DCCC.
• It is understandable, given their country's history, that the Poles are enjoying punching above their weight and being fêted by President George ...
• There is a whiff of that from critics who derided Mr Grass in 1995 and fete him now.
• His flight to India was humiliating for China: even a young monk it had feted and nurtured to help bolster its rule in Tibet rejected it in the most ...
• Fêting Hitler's birthday is one of their pastimes; if your skin is the wrong colour, this place could be perilous.
• Unlike most towns, Cognac is literally en fête during its festival.
• Switzerland's economy is stagnating, unemployment is rising, its airline still ails, Martin Ebner, a fêted financier, has stumbled, and many Swiss ...
• This is courtesy Dr Okonjo-Iweala that the Economist so feted.
• ... many of the Tea Partiers seem to espouse but was appalled to see the convention goers fêting the likes of Sarah Palin and Tom Tancredo.
• Fêting the Chinese president with the full honours accorded to America's most welcome visitors will help.
• By fêting the novelist, Mr Castro gained an internationally acclaimed ambassador at large.
• When he launched the British presidency six months ago with a fête at Waterloo Station, the prime minister said he saw the presidency as a test ...
• He became a world figure in literature, much admired in Germany and fêted in Scandinavia.
• And the fêting of prominent technology projects in emerging economies is sometimes premature.
• Still, fêting Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, at the White House St Patrick's Day party was unhelpful to both Tony ...
• ... he has aligned himself with Ahmed of Qatar and Rashed of Dubai and it is noticeable that the Iranians have taken trouble to fête him on his ...

Answer 2

Fete as a transitive verb means: (Chambers)

To entertain at a feast

To honour with festivities

So you can't fete occasions, but you can certainly fete people.

She feted her guests at the party.

We have to fete our soldiers.

Answer 3

"Also note that you don't fête an occasion - if you must use it as a verb, you fête a person."

This is not true in the original French version, where you can fête your birthday, etc... Note that the circumflex denotes the absence of a letter that was elided in speech in French, in this and many other cases an 's', so 'fête' is not that far from 'feast'.

Answer 4

My advice is to stick with the passive voice. As this NGram shows, that's what most people do...

And here are just half-a-dozen instances of "I feted him" in the entire corpus of Google Books. You can get away with passive voice, or non-specific subject (they, the people, etc.), but in general "to fete" isn't often used as an "active" verb. Semantically, the "real" subject is actually the person being feted, not the people delivering that honour.

Also note that you don't fete an occasion - if you must use it as a verb, you fete a person.