vācanaka : [nt.] a ceremony or place of recitation.

A.P. Buddhadatta Mahathera, Concise Pali-English and English-Pali Dictionary [available as digital version from Metta Net, Sri Lanka]

Vācanaka (nt.) [fr. vāceti] talk, recitation, disputation; invitation (?), in brāhmaṇa˚ J i.318 (karoti); iii.171; iv.391 (karoti); regarded as a kind of festival. At Jiii.238 vācanaka is used by itself (two brahmins receiving it). It refers to the treating of brāhmaṇas (br. teachers) on special occasions (on behalf of their pupils: a sort of farewell -- dinner?). -- It is not quite sure how we have to interpret vācanaka. Under brāhmaṇa (cpds.) we have trsld it as "elocution show" (cp. our "speech day"). The E. trsln gives "brahmin feast"; Prof. Dutoit "Brahmanen -- backwerk" (i. e. special cakes for br.). vācana may be a distortion ofvājana, although the latter is never found as v. l. It is at all events a singular expression. BR give vācanaka as a(/pac legome/non in meaning of "sweetmeat," with the only ref. Hārāvalī 152 (Calc. ed.), where it is expld as "prahelaka" (see P. paheṇaka). On the subject see also Fick, Soc. Glied. 137, 205.

Pali-English Dictionary, TW Rhys Davids, William Stede,