A réveillon (French: [ʁevɛjɔ̃]) is a long dinner held in the evening preceding Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. Its name descends from the word réveil (meaning "waking"), because participation involves staying awake until morning, as the meal finishes. The term is first documented in 18th-century France, and was used by the French as a name for the night-long party dinners held by the nobility. Eventually the word began to be used by other courts (amongst them the Portuguese courts) and after the French Revolution it was adopted as a definition of the New Year's Eve.