Definition of "celebrating"

While De Anza was exploring the Bay of San Francisco, seeking a site for the presidio, the American colonists on the eastern seaboard, three thousand miles away, were celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

1948, Carey McWilliams, North from Mexico / The Spanish-Speaking People of The United States, J. B. Lippincott Company, page 25

Sometimes, at business meetings, bazaars, banquets, decoratings, celebratings, and what not, our animosities like wild tigers escape and create havoc in the flock.

1961, Leonard J. Lea, Views from the Mountain, page 162