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ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CALENDAR
Calendar at Kom Ombo
Although Mesopotamians devised the first calenders the Egyptians conceived the modern 365-day, 12 month calendar. Egypt devised a 365-day calendar as early as the 5th millennium based on flood of the Nile which occurred at almost the same time every year. The Egyptian year began in July when the Nile usually flooded and was marked by the rising of the star Sirius in the eastern horizon just before daybreak.
Egyptians added five days to the Babylonian 360-day calendar. The ancient Egyptian civil calendar had three season: 1) Akhet (Flooding); 2) Peret (Growing or Sowing); and 3) Shemu (Harvest). Each season had four months with 30 days. The additional five days were tacked onto the end of Harvest and set aside for feasting during the annual flooding of the Nile. The Hindus and Chinese also used 365-day calendars.
The Egyptians discovered that not only did the star Sirius line up with the rising sun around the time of flooding every year they also noticed that Sirius lined up with sun about six hours (a ¼ a day) different every year. They were among the first people to realize the need for a leap day. For a while they inserted a leap day into their calendar but then abandoned it. This meant their calendar would slip a day every four years and an entire month every 120 years.
A trilingual description of changes to be made to the Egyptian calendar was found at the temple of Bubastis, the 8th century capital of Egypt. The 2,200-year-old stellate described planned changes for the Egyptian calendar that were implemented d250 years later by Julius Caesar.
Categories with related articles in this website: Ancient Egyptian History (32 articles) factsanddetails.com; Ancient Egyptian Religion (24 articles) factsanddetails.com; Ancient Egyptian Life and Culture (36 articles) factsanddetails.com; Ancient Egyptian Government, Infrastructure and Economics (24 articles) factsanddetails.com
Websites on Ancient Egypt: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Discovering Egypt discoveringegypt.com; BBC History: Egyptians bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians ; Ancient History Encyclopedia on Egypt ancient.eu/egypt; Digital Egypt for Universities. Scholarly treatment with broad coverage and cross references (internal and external). Artifacts used extensively to illustrate topics. ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt ; British Museum: Ancient Egypt ancientegypt.co.uk; Egypt’s Golden Empire pbs.org/empires/egypt; Metropolitan Museum of Art www.metmuseum.org ; Oriental Institute Ancient Egypt (Egypt and Sudan) Projects ; Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre in Paris louvre.fr/en/departments/egyptian-antiquities; KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt kmtjournal.com; Ancient Egypt Magazine ancientegyptmagazine.co.uk; Egypt Exploration Society ees.ac.uk ; Amarna Project amarnaproject.com; Egyptian Study Society, Denver egyptianstudysociety.com; The Ancient Egypt Site ancient-egypt.org; Abzu: Guide to Resources for the Study of the Ancient Near East etana.org; Egyptology Resources fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk
Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian Concepts of Time
The Egyptians invented the 24 hour day and helped pioneer the concept of time as an entity. They divided the day into two cycles of 12 hours each. The origin of the 12-hour division might come from star patterns in the sky or from the Sumerian number system which was based on the number 12.
The Babylonians are often given credit for devising the first calendars, and with them the first conception of time as an entity. They developed and used the 360-day year — divided into 12 lunar months of 30 days (real lunar months are 29½ days) — devised by the Sumerians and introduced the seven day week, corresponding to the four waning and waxing periods of the lunar cycle. The ancients Egyptians adopted the 12-month system to their calendar. The ancient Hindus, Chinese, and Egyptians, all used 365-day calendars.
The Babylonians stuck stubbornly to the lunar calendar to define the year even though 12 lunar months did not equal one year. In 432 B.C., the Greeks introduced the so-called Metonic cycle in which every 19 years seven of the years had thirteen months and 12 years had 12 months. These kept the seasons in synch with the year and the roughly kept the days and months of the Metonic year in synch with those on the lunar calendar. The Metonic calendar was too complicated for everyday use and used mostly by astronomers.
The Mesopotamians also invented the 60 minute hour. The idea of measuring the year was more important than measuring the day. People could judge the time of day by following the sun. Judging the time of year was more difficult and important in knowing when to plant crops, expect rain or snow and harvest crops. That is why a yearly calendar was developed before clocks and minutes and seconds didn’t come to the Middle Ages.
The Babylonians have been credited with coming up with the idea of dividing the hour into 60 minutes. The number 60 seemed to be prized especially since 360 divided by six is 60 and some scholars have speculated that is why hours are made up of 60 minutes and minutes are made up of 60 seconds. Other believe the number 60 was arrived at by multiplying the visible planets (5, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) by the number of months (12).
Calendar System
Ancient Egyptian calendar at Elephantine Island
The Egyptians devised the solar calendar by recording the yearly reappearance of Sirius (the Dog Star) in the eastern sky. It was a fixed point which coincided with the yearly flooding of the Nile. Their calendar had 365 days and 12 months with 30 days in each month and an additional five festival days at the end of the year. However, they did not account for the additional fraction of a day and their calendar gradually became incorrect. Eventually Ptolemy III added one day to the 365 days every four years. [Source: Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com ^^^]
According to Minnesota State University, Mankato: The calendar system of ancient Egypt is unique to both the cosmology of the Egyptians and their religion. Unlike the modern Julian calendar system, with it's 365 days to a year, the Egyptians followed a calendar system of 360 days, with three seasons, each made up of 4 months, with thirty days in each month. The seasons of the Egyptians corresponded with the cycles of the Nile, and were known as Inundation (pronounced akhet which lasted from June 21st to October 21st), Emergence (pronounced proyet which lasted from October 21st to February 21st), and Summer (pronounced shomu which lasted from February 21st to June 21st). [Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com +]
“The beginning of the year, also called "the opening of the year", was marked by the emergence of the star Sirius, in the constellation of Canis Major. The constellation emerged roughly on June 21st., and was called "the going up of the goddess Sothis". The star was visible just before sunrise, and is still one of the brightest stars in the sky, located to the lower left of Orion and taking the form of the dogs nose in the constellation Canis Major. +\
“Though the Egyptians did have a 360 day calendar, in a literal sense they did have a 365 day calendar system. The beginning of the year was marked by the addition of five additional days, known as "the yearly five days". These additional five days, were times of great feasting and celebration for the Egyptians, and it was not uncommon for the Egyptians to rituals, and other celebratory dealings on these days. The Egyptian calendar also took on other important functions within Egyptian life specifically in dealing with the astrology of the people. “ +\
Herodotus on the Egyptian Calender
Goddess Nut with humans representing stars, from the tomb of Ramses VI
Herodotus wrote in Book 2 of “Histories”: “But as to human affairs, this was the account in which they all agreed: the Egyptians, they said, were the first men who reckoned by years and made the year consist of twelve divisions of the seasons. They discovered this from the stars (so they said). And their reckoning is, to my mind, a juster one than that of the Greeks; for the Greeks add an intercalary month every other year, so that the seasons agree; but the Egyptians, reckoning thirty days to each of the twelve months, add five days in every year over and above the total, and thus the completed circle of seasons is made to agree with the calendar. [Source: Herodotus, “The Histories”, Egypt after the Persian Invasion, Book 2, English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920, Tufts]
“Furthermore, the Egyptians (they said) first used the names of twelve gods4 (which the Greeks afterwards borrowed from them); and it was they who first assigned to the several gods their altars and images and temples, and first carved figures on stone. Most of this they showed me in fact to be the case. The first human king of Egypt, they said, was Min. In his time all of Egypt except the Thebaic5 district was a marsh: all the country that we now see was then covered by water, north of lake Moeris,6 which is seven days' journey up the river from the sea.
“Other things originating with the Egyptians are these. Each month and day belong to one of the gods, and according to the day of one's birth are determined how one will fare and how one will end and what one will be like; those Greeks occupied with poetry exploit this. More portents have been discovered by them than by all other peoples; when a portent occurs, they take note of the outcome and write it down; and if something of a like kind happens again, they think it will have a like result. As to the art of divination among them, it belongs to no man, but to some of the gods; there are in their country oracles of Heracles, Apollo, Athena, Artemis, Ares, and Zeus, and of Leto (the most honored of all) in the town of Buto. Nevertheless, they have several ways of divination, not just one.”
Ancient Egyptian Astrology and the Cairo Calendar
According to Minnesota State University, Mankato: Most of our understanding of Egyptian astrology is contained within the Cairo Calendar, which consists of a listing of all the days of an Egyptian year. The listings within the calendar all take the same form and can be broken up into three parts: I, the type of day (favorable, unfavorable etc), II, a mythological event which may make a particular day more favorable or unfavorable, III, and a prescribed behavior associated with that day. Unlike modern astrology as found within newspapers, where one can choose whether to follow the advice there in or not, the Egyptians strictly adhered to what an astrologer would advise. As is evidenced by the papyrus of the Cairo Calendar, on days where there were adverse or favorable conditions, if the astrologers told a person not to go outside, not to bathe, or to eat fish on a particular day, such advice was taken very literally and seriously. [Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com +]
“Some of the most interesting and misunderstood information about the Ancient Egyptians concerns their calendarical and astrological system. Of the greatest fallacy about Ancient Egypt and it's belief in astrology concerns the supposed worship of animals. The Egyptians did not worship animals, rather the Egyptians according to an animals astrological significance, behaved in certain ritualistic ways toward certain animals on certain days. For example, as is evidenced by the papyrus Cairo Calendar, during the season of Emergence, it was the advisement of the Seers (within the priestly caste), and the omens of certain animals they saw, which devised whether a specific date would be favorable or unfavorable. +\
“The basis for deciding whether a date was favorable or unfavorable was based upon a belief in possession of good or evil spirits, and upon a mythological ascription to the gods. Simply, an animal was not ritually revered because it was an animal, but rather because it had the ability to become possessed, and therefore could cause harm or help to any individual near them. It was also conceived of that certain gods could on specific days take the form of specific animals. Hence on certain days, it was more likely for a specific type of animal to become possessed by a spirit or god than on other days. The rituals that the Egyptians partook of to keep away evil spirits from possessing an animal consisted of sacrifice to magic, however, it was the seers and the astrologers who guided many of the Egyptians and their daily routines. Hence, the origin of Egyptians worshipping animals, has more to do with the rituals to displace evil spirits, and their astrological system, more so than it does to actually worshipping animals.” +\
Calendar Senenmut-Grab
Links Between the Ancient Egyptian and Coptic Christian Calendar
Saphinaz-Amal Naguib of the University of Oslo wrote: “Cultural changes usually occur as part of long processes of transformation. However, some events may trigger rapid changes in a culture’s structures, generate innovations, and bring about new ways of life. The construction of the Aswan High Dam was such an event. Inaugurated in January 1971, the Aswan High Dam has radically altered Egypt’s ecology and led to the disappearance of most rituals and religious practices related to the Nile and its inundation. It has modified a cumulative body of local knowledge and made the agricultural calendar meaningless. Nevertheless, some religious practices tied to the seasonality of the Nile are still recognizable in Coptic Christianity. Their memory lingers on in the Coptic calendar, a solar calendar that is based on the ancient Egyptian one, which used to be the agricultural calendar of Egypt. For instance, like the ancient Egyptians, Copts celebrate their New Year (cayd el-nayruuz) on the first of Tuut, which corresponds to the month of September. Before the building of the Aswan High Dam, the river’s level attained its peak around the middle of the month. Land- taxes would not be collected before the Nile had reached the ideal height of sixteen cubits. The final level of the river was measured on the seventeenth of Tuut and was called “the level of the Cross.” The Coptic synaxarium reminds us that the day is dedicated to the Feast of the Cross (cayd el-saliib). [Source: Saphinaz-Amal Naguib, University of Oslo, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2008, escholarship.org ]
“The third month of the year, Haatuur, begins with the three “nights of darkness,” during which Coptic liturgy is imbued with funerary tones. From an Egyptological point of view it harks of Plutarch’s statement that Osiris was killed during this month. Nothing in the Coptic liturgy reminds us of the mysteries of Osiris that were celebrated during Khoiak, the fourth month of the year. Yet during this month it is a custom among Egyptians, both Copts and Muslims, to sow seven types of grain on cotton-wool wrapped around a bottle or on the model of a doll cut in cardboard. The sprouting figure is considered as an omen of a “green year”—that is, a prosperous and happy one. The fifth month, Tuubah, was known for the quality and purity of the Nile’s water. People used to store mayyat Tuubah—Nile water drawn during this month— for special occasions. Big jars filled with it were placed near cemeteries, tombs of saints, and other pilgrimage sites. It was believed that the waters would cure diseases and prevent all kinds of ailments. Copts celebrate the Feast of Immersion (cayd el-ghitaas) commemorating the Baptism of Christ on the eleventh of Tuubah and visit their dead on the following day.
“In ancient Egypt solemnities commemorating the erection of the Djed-pillar were held during this month. The spring feast of shamm el-nasiim, which usually occurs during the month of Barmuudah, has been considered to derive from the ancient Egyptian Sokar Festival. The twelfth of Ba'uuna is dedicated to the archangel Michael, and the liturgy of that day includes prayers to the Nile. Before the building of the Aswan High Dam, this period coincided with the Night of the Drop (laylat el-nuqta), when the Nile was at its lowest level and the inundation period started. On that night a divine drop falling from the sky was said to initiate the rise of the Nile. To ancient Egyptians it corresponded with the appearance of the Dog Star, Sopdet (vocalized as Sothis by the Greeks), at dawn announcing the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one. According to Pausanias, it was believed that during that night Isis mourning the loss of Osiris shed a tear, thus triggering the overflow. Furthermore, it is worth noting here that the archangel Michael seems to have taken over the characteristic of the god Thoth as regulator of the Nile.”
Egyptian calendar
“Coptic pilgrimages and mulids have gone through various developments giving way to innovations and hybridization. The term “mulid” (Arabic: mawlid, pl. mawaalid) stems from the root wld, meaning birth. It designates the birthday of a saint. More exactly, it marks the anniversary of the saint’s martyrdom or death and thereby her or his “rebirth.” By extension, mulid denotes the festivities held around the shrine of the saint, who is a center of pilgrimage. The shrine locality attracts fairs with all their various stalls and games. Mulids, whether Coptic or Muslim, pertain to popular religion and have been frowned upon by both religious and governmental authorities, which blame them for re-enacting pagan rituals, encouraging sexual licentiousness, and providing the grounds for the consumption of drugs. So much so that the term “mulid” signifies rowdiness and anarchy. Nevertheless, mulids are popular among people from different social backgrounds and until recently Copts and Muslims used to take part in each other’s mulids. Some mulids are recent creations, but the majority have a long history exemplifying the significance of a given site as a consecrated sacred space and bringing forth the descriptions of festivals dating back to the Pharaonic Period. Some saints and martyrs may have incorporated the characteristics of older local deities, but this is an opinion open to controversy.”
Ancient Egyptian Festivals
During ancient Egyptian festivals statues of the gods were carried by priests in a procession to other temples so they could visit with other gods. During a festival that celebrated the founding of the first Egyptian kingdom the pharaoh did a dance while wearing a short skirt with an animal tail hanging from behind it.
A "sexual union between the king and queen" was probably part of the Great fertility Festival of Min. During the Ptolemaic era an effigy of Osiris was sacrificed and then reborn with barley spraying from the top of the effigy like a sparklers from a Roman candle. ["World Religions" edited by Geoffrey Parrinder, Facts on File Publications, New York]
Annual animal cult festivals were big events. A.R Williams wrote in National Geographic, “Like country fairs, these great gatherings enlivened religious centers up and down the Nile. Pilgrims arrived by the hundreds of thousands and setup camp. Music and dancing filled the processional rite. Merchants sold food, drink and souvenirs. Priests became salesmen, offering wrapped mummies, as well as more elaborate ones for people who cold spend more — or thought they should. With incense swirling all around, the faithful ended their journey by delivering their chosen mummy to the temple with a prayer.”
The key annual event occurred in midsummer, and it involved not only the sun but also the bright star Sirius (which they equated with the astral god Sothis). Every spring Sirius disappears for several weeks , hidden by the sun’s glare. The New Year began when Sirius first became visible again in the predawn sky, heralding the flooding of the Nile.
The Apis bull was one of the most revered animals in all of ancient Egypt. A.R. Williams wrote in National Geographic, “On the bull’s burial day, city residents surged into the streets to observe this occasion of national mourning. Wailing and tearing at their hair, they crowded the route at the catacomb now known as Serapeum in the desert necropolis of Saqqara. In a procession, priest temple, singers, and exalted officials delivered the mummy to the network of vaulted galleries carved into the bedrock of limestone. There among the long corridors of previous burials, they interred the mummy in a massive wooden or granite sarcophagus.” [Ibid]
Herodotus on Egyptian Processions and Feasts
Herodotus wrote in Book 2 of “Histories”: “The Egyptians hold solemn assemblies not once a year, but often. The principal one of these and the most enthusiastically celebrated is that in honor of Artemis at the town of Bubastis31 , and the next is that in honor of Isis at Busiris. This town is in the middle of the Egyptian Delta, and there is in it a very great temple of Isis, who is Demeter in the Greek language. The third greatest festival is at Saïs in honor of Athena; the fourth is the festival of the sun at Heliopolis, the fifth of Leto at Buto, and the sixth of Ares at Papremis. 60. [Source: Herodotus, “The Histories”, Egypt after the Persian Invasion, Book 2, English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920, Tufts]
lunar calendar in 2017
“When the people are on their way to Bubastis, they go by river, a great number in every boat, men and women together. Some of the women make a noise with rattles, others play flutes all the way, while the rest of the women, and the men, sing and clap their hands. As they travel by river to Bubastis, whenever they come near any other town they bring their boat near the bank; then some of the women do as I have said, while some shout mockery of the women of the town; others dance, and others stand up and lift their skirts. They do this whenever they come alongside any riverside town. But when they have reached Bubastis, they make a festival with great sacrifices, and more wine is drunk at this feast than in the whole year besides. It is customary for men and women (but not children) to assemble there to the number of seven hundred thousand, as the people of the place say. 61.
“This is what they do there; I have already described how they keep the feast of Isis at Busiris. There, after the sacrifice, all the men and women lament, in countless numbers; but it is not pious for me to say who it is for whom they lament. Carians who live in Egypt do even more than this, inasmuch as they cut their foreheads with knives; and by this they show that they are foreigners and not Egyptians. 62.
“When they assemble at Saïs on the night of the sacrifice, they keep lamps burning outside around their houses. These lamps are saucers full of salt and oil on which the wick floats, and they burn all night. This is called the Feast of Lamps. Egyptians who do not come to this are mindful on the night of sacrifice to keep their own lamps burning, and so they are alight not only at Saïs but throughout Egypt. A sacred tale is told showing why this night is lit up thus and honored. 63.
“When the people go to Heliopolis and Buto, they offer sacrifice only. At Papremis sacrifice is offered and rites performed just as elsewhere; but when the sun is setting, a few of the priests hover about the image, while most of them go and stand in the entrance to the temple with clubs of wood in their hands; others, more than a thousand men fulfilling vows, who also carry wooden clubs, stand in a mass opposite. The image of the god, in a little gilded wooden shrine, they carry away on the day before this to another sacred building. The few who are left with the image draw a four-wheeled wagon conveying the shrine and the image that is in the shrine; the others stand in the space before the doors and do not let them enter, while the vow-keepers, taking the side of the god, strike them, who defend themselves. A fierce fight with clubs breaks out there, and they are hit on their heads, and many, I expect, even die from their wounds; although the Egyptians said that nobody dies. The natives say that they made this assembly a custom from the following incident: the mother of Ares lived in this temple; Ares had been raised apart from her and came, when he grew up, wishing to visit his mother; but as her attendants kept him out and would not let him pass, never having seen him before, Ares brought men from another town, manhandled the attendants, and went in to his mother. From this, they say, this hitting for Ares became a custom in the festival32. 64.
“Furthermore, it was the Egyptians who first made it a matter of religious observance not to have intercourse with women in temples or to enter a temple after such intercourse without washing. Nearly all other peoples are less careful in this matter than are the Egyptians and Greeks, and consider a man to be like any other animal; for beasts and birds (they say) are seen to mate both in the temples and in the sacred precincts; now were this displeasing to the god, the beasts would not do so. This is the reason given by others for practices which I, for my part, dislike; 65. but the Egyptians in this and in all other matters are exceedingly strict against desecration of their temples.
Processions in Ancient Egypt
Processions were a fixture of festivals and funerals in ancient Egypt. Martin Stadler of Wuerzburg University wrote: “Egyptian processions were performed, and acquired meaning, in a religious context. Funeral processions, for example, symbolized the deceased’s transition into the hereafter. The most important processions, however, were the processions of deities that took place during the major feasts, especially those feasts that recurred annually. The deity left his or her sanctuary on these occasions and thus provided the only opportunities for a wider public to have more or less immediate contact with the deity’s image, although in most cases it still remained hidden within a shrine. These processions often involved the journey of the principal deity of the town to visit other gods, not uncommonly “deceased” ancestor gods who were buried within the temple’s vicinity. The “wedding” of a god and his divine consort provided yet another occasion for a feast for which processions were performed. [Source: Martin Stadler, Wuerzburg University, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2008, escholarship.org ]
Nebamun tomb fresco dancers and musicians
“They may be categorized as either processions of deities, in which royal processions would be included, or funeral processions. Processions of deities may be subdivided into those that took place within the temple and those that exited the temple. The former were not open to the wider public but had a profound impact on the architectural design of a temple, because the deity’s statue was carried around to “visit” interior stations or chapels, or—at least from the Late Period onward—the deity’s earthly manifestation was brought to the temple’s roof for the cosmic rejuvenation of the god through ritual unification with the sun, as part of the celebration of the rites of the New Year’s feast. Alongside these internal processional ways, votive statues were erected by the Egyptian elite to guarantee their permanent (even posthumous) presence in the audience whenever a deity epiphanized.
“Although there is clear evidence for feasts in the Old Kingdom, there are neither textual nor archaeological sources that inform us about processions or allow us to trace processional routes in that period. In fact, the bulk of source material dates to the New Kingdom and particularly to the Ptolemaic Period. This bias in the chronological distribution of the surviving material has, consequently, a bearing on the relative validity of our interpretations and reconstructions. Despite this caution, we may surmise that the basic features of processions were similar before, during, and after the New Kingdom.”
Forms of Processions
Martin Stadler of Wuerzburg University wrote: “During the major religious feasts a procession of the deity exiting the temple was the highlight, because it was the only occasion during which the public, who did not have unrestricted temple access, could have more immediate contact with the deity. The deity’s statue appeared (xaj) by coming forth (prj) from the temple’s sanctuary in a ceremonial bark—hence the two Egyptian terms for procession: sxay (“the causing of a god or ruler to appear”) and prt or prw (“a coming forth”). In most cases the divine image was nevertheless hidden in a naos (shrine) that was carried within the bark and was therefore still invisible to the public. [Source: Martin Stadler, Wuerzburg University, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2008, escholarship.org ]
“On the other hand, reliefs depicting the feasts of the god Min suggest that Min’s image was visible during the procession . In Egyptology it has generally been thought that the divine image in the bark and the cult statue in the sanctuary were one and the same image. However, evidence from Karnak suggests that there were two distinct statues—one that remained in the sanctuary, sSmw jmnw/Dsrw (“hidden/secret/sacred image”), and another that was used as a processional statue, sSmw xw (“the protected image”) or nTr pn Spsj/nTrt tn Spst (“this venerable god/goddess”). The ceremonial bark was not made for actual rowing or sailing, but for being carried on the shoulders of priests, and had carrying poles for that purpose. For sailing on the Nile, Amun’s bark was put onto a boat and pulled by the royal ship.
“The processions that exited a temple for destinations outside the temple precinct usually followed internal processions within the temple and were, with some exceptions, part of the major feasts in an annual cycle. Such feasts usually lasted at least 11 days, although longer durations are also known. Temple reliefs show the outward appearance of these events (including their participants), which comprised five basic elements: 1) the temple’s principal gods (i.e. the triad) in their processional barks; 2) other deities, represented as standards, preceding the barks; 3) the king; 4) the people who formed the audience; and 5) those who acted in the procession. Those who were actively involved were, for example, priests who bore the processional bark, the standards, or other cultic instruments, the rowing crew (needed when the processional bark was actually transported on the Nile in a larger craft), and singers, musicians, and dancers who accompanied the cult statue. The presence of singers implies the existence of standard hymns that were sung—and indeed texts of hymns for the god in procession are preserved. Some processions involved a journey across the Nile River. In a river procession, the Egyptian term for which was Xn(y)t (“rowing”), the ceremonial bark was put into another bark to be ferried over. Necessary rest periods for those who had to carry the bark provided opportunities for the performance of rituals for the deity (e.g., the presentation of offerings, the burning of incense, and the recitation of hymns;
funeral procession
Processions at Major Festivals in Ancient Egypt
Martin Stadler of Wuerzburg University wrote: “We are particularly well informed about festivals in Thebes due to the documentation provided by the various Theban temples. Some of the associated processions led Amun from his own temple in Karnak, on the east bank, southward to the Luxor temple, or across the river to the temples on the west bank. The occurrence of processions is also suggested by evidence from other sites, such as Memphis, Heliopolis, Thinis, Abydos, and the Nubian sites of Abu Simbel, el-Derr Amada, Gerf Hussein, and Wadi el-Sebua (at some of which Memphite or Theban theology was adapted). That bark processions occurred at each of these sites is not an absolute certainty due to the poor state of preservation of some of the aforementioned places. [Source: Martin Stadler, Wuerzburg University, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2008, escholarship.org ]
“Some processions traveled far beyond the temple’s vicinity. The most famous such example is the procession of the goddess Hathor of Dendara, attested in a set of scenes on the pylon of the Ptolemaic temple of Horus at Edfu. Hathor traveled some 180 kilometers upstream from her temple at Dendara to the temple of Horus of Edfu, her divine consort. Her arrival was the starting point of one of Edfu’s five major feasts, each of which lasted for two weeks and was part of a more complex set of feasts and processions in itself. Taking the travel time from Dendara to Edfu and back to Dendara, together with the feast proper, such a procession lasted over several weeks. These events have traditionally been interpreted as constituting a hieros gamos feast, that is, the feast of a divine wedding, celebrating the marriage of Horus and Hathor. This interpretation is now open to doubt. The reliefs and inscription may rather be seen as the depiction of a feast during which the principal deities of Edfu left the temple, together with the newly arrived Hathor, to visit the nearby necropolis, where primordial gods were believed to be buried. In the course of the visit, Horus and Hathor made offerings to these primordial gods and performed rituals to rejuvenate them, thereby stimulating a general regeneration.
“Although every cultic procession had its particular motivations rooted in the local theology, the festal visit of the chief deity to the burial place of his or her ancestors, such as that described above for Edfu, appears to be a feature common to many processions. At Thebes, for example, Amun, in his particular ithyphallic manifestation as Amun of Luxor (that is, Amenope, Jmn-jpt), went from the Luxor temple to the west bank to visit his small temple, 9sr-st, at Medinet Habu. 9sr-st was believed to be the burial place of the particular group of primordial gods known as the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. At 9sr-st, libations and offerings were made in performance of the funerary cult for the Ogdoad. The purpose of the visit, which recurred every ten days rather than annually, was the unification of Amenope, who took the form of the Kamutef-serpent, with the primordial Amun, a member of the Ogdoad. Through this unification the god revitalized himself.
“In the Theban festival of Opet, Amun came forth from his temple in Karnak and went southward to the Luxor Temple, where he received offerings, was recharged with energy thereby, and confirmed the sovereigns’ kingship in return. It has also been speculated that the feast may have celebrated a hieros gamos, as suggested by the prominent role played by the “God’s Wife,” a high-ranking priestess. In the Opet Festival processions Amun either traveled overland or sailed on the river parallel to the bank, apparently depending on the personal preference of the individual ruler. Hatshepsut, for example, took the overland route towards Luxor, then sailed back to Karnak. During her reign (1473 – 1458 B.C.) a processional alley was built as a monumental open space for the ritual performance, the layout allowing for a large crowd to witness the events. This structure connected the Karnak temples of Amun, Amun-Kamutef, and Mut to the temple of Luxor, although its configuration was considerably changed by her successors.
“During the “Beautiful Feast of the Valley,” Amun met with Mut and Khons (the three deities of the Theban Triad) at Karnak, and together they crossed the river to the west bank, where barks carrying the cult statues of the deified Amenhotep I (“Amenhotep-of- the-Forecourt”) and Ahmose-Nefertari joined them. The procession first visited the reigning king’s “house of millions of years” and then proceeded to the houses of millions of years belonging to former rulers, whose barks also joined the group, Accordingly, the itinerary changed with each new sovereign. The procession’s ultimate destination was Deir el- Bahri, which in essence is a sanctuary of Hathor. The deceased of the Theban necropolis were believed to partake in this procession and to benefit from the gods’ passing by their tombs. In the aforementioned Abydene Khoiak festival, the deceased were also thought to benefit from the divine passing by. Horus and Hathor’s journey to the Edfu necropolis is a further parallel.”
Procession to the Tomb of Merymery
Osiris Procession at the Khoiak Festival at Abydos
On the so-called Khoiak Festival at Abydos. Martin Stadler of Wuerzburg University wrote: “For the Middle Kingdom, the procession of the underworld god Osiris during the Khoiak Festival is well documented. The procession can be reconstructed as follows: It left the god’s temple at Abydos to visit his desert burial place, called Pqr (“Poker”), located in what is known today as Umm el-Qa’ab, the Pre- and Early Dynastic royal necropolis of Abydos. At this site is situated the tomb of 1st-Dynasty king Djer (2974 – 2927 B.C.), which was considered to be that of Osiris from (at least) around 2000 B.C. onward. [Source: Martin Stadler, Wuerzburg University, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2008, escholarship.org ]
“Thus the procession of the deceased royal god Osiris combined both royal and funereal elements. The exact route the procession took to Poker is not entirely certain, but the great number of Middle Kingdom stelae and chapels lining the so-called “terrace of the great god” (rwd n nTr aA) behind the temple of Osiris indicates that here the nSmt, the sacred bark of Osiris, passed by—an indication reinforced by the stelae’s recurrent formula expressing the dedicatees’ hope of seeing the “perfection” (nfrw) of Osiris. Seeing Osiris’s perfection was a symbol of having passed the judgment at death and of having entered the hereafter. The North and Middle cemeteries adjacent to the Abydene “terrace of the great god” may themselves be seen as flanking the processional way into the desert to the aforementioned tomb of Djer.
“The procession’s exact structure, however, is still quite obscure, because the activities of the feast itself were kept secret. The Khoiak Festival probably comprised multiple processions, with the procession of Wepwawet (prt Wp-wAwt) preceding the “great procession” (prt aAt) of Osiris. It is likely that during these processions the myth of Osiris was dramatically re-enacted, or at least recited. Further evidence, consisting of inscriptions and scenes in the Osiris chapels on the roof of the late Ptolemaic-early Roman Hathor temple at Dendara, may give us some idea of these Khoiak “mysteries.” Despite the late date of these attestations there is reason to consider that parts of the texts can be traced as far back as the Middle Kingdom.”
On a festival held in conjunction the Khoiak Festival during Ptolemic and Roman times, Filip Coppens of Charles University, Prague wrote: “The “Festival of the Coronation of the Sacred Falcon” (xaw nswt) was but one of many examples of this type of feast. It was celebrated during the first days of the month of Tybi and is depicted in detail on the inner face of the temple’s enclosure wall. The festival followed almost immediately upon the feasts surrounding the internment and resurrection of the god Osiris, in his role as ruler of Egypt and father of Horus, at the end of the month of Khoiak. On the first day of the fifth month of the year, Horus, as the son and legitimate heir of Osiris, assumed the kingship over the two lands. The annual Festival of the Coronation of the Sacred Falcon can be seen as a re-enactment of both Horus and the ruling pharaoh taking their rightful place upon the throne of Egypt. The main events of this festival consisted of a series of processions within the temple precinct. The main stages of the feast included: a procession of the falcon-headed statue of Horus from the sanctuary to the “Temple of the Sacred Falcon”, located in front of the main temple; the election of a sacred falcon, reared within the temple precinct, as the heir of the god; the display of this falcon (from the platform between the two wings of the pylon) to the crowd of people gathered in front of the temple; the falcon’s coronation in the temple; and, finally, a festive meal in the “Temple of the Sacred Falcon”. Another important festival in the temple of Edfu of which more than the name has been preserved is the “Festival of Victory” (Hb qnt) depicted on the interior of the enclosure wall. [Source: Filip Coppens, Czech Institute of Egyptology, Charles University, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2009, escholarship.org ]
Political Dimension of Processions
Martin Stadler of Wuerzburg University wrote: “In addition to their religious significance processions had clear political implications. On the occasion of the Beautiful Feast of the Valley, families gathered at the tombs of their ancestors and held a banquet. The core significance of the Beautiful Feast of the Valley was therefore funerary, yet a strong connection to the royal cult is also evident, demonstrated by the procession’s first destination on the west bank—the reigning king’s house of millions of years—which thus linked the god’s cult with the king’s. [Source: Martin Stadler, Wuerzburg University, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2008, escholarship.org ]
“The incidental movements of the ceremonial bark as it traveled upon the priests’ shoulders were seen as being induced by the deity and were consequently interpreted as expressions of divine will. Processions were thus occasions during which the deity gave oracles on a range of concerns—from the problems of everyday life, to the selection of a new ruler, to the legitimization of royal decisions. Hatshepsut is the first individual to report extensively on how Amun selected and enthroned her as king during a procession. Hatshepsut’s instrumentalization of an oracle given during a procession initiated a development resulting in the identification of the feast for Amun’s cosmic rejuvenation with the celebration of the king’s enthronement. Increasingly, political decisions were made not by the sovereign but by Amun, through oracles, some of which were delivered during processions. There is even reason to assume that in the 20th Dynasty some crown princes were selected by the deity. In the demotic fictional narrative The Battle for the Prebend of Amun (Papyrus Spiegelberg), such an oracle to legitimize royal power and activity, given during the occasion of a procession, is described.
“In the New Kingdom (1550–1070 B.C.), the Theban Opet- procession became a demonstration of royal power and splendor, be it by virtue of the architectural framework or the royal presence at the feast. Furthermore Amun’s rejuvenation during the feast was associated with a regeneration of royal power. In the reign of Ramesses II (and again in the reign of Ramesses III) this rejuvenation was enhanced by the participation of the king’s multitudinous sons, as suggested by temple reliefs. Although it is unlikely that such scenes reflected reality—presumably only some of the princes were present—they nevertheless must have impressively displayed the pharaoh’s vigor and the guaranteed endurance of the dynasty.
“During the Amarna Period all processions were replaced by the royal family’s daily journey from the royal palace to the temple of Aten in Akhetaton (Tell el-Amarna), where the cult was performed. The trek was presented as a divine procession of “a god visiting another god,” followed by an offering procession within the Aten temple. From this perspective, the appearance of the royal family in Amarna constituted the apogee of processions as demonstrations of royal power.”
funeral procession
Temple Festivals of the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods
Filip Coppens of Charles University, Prague wrote: “Egyptian temples of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods provided the setting for the dramatic performance of various cultic activities, such as festivals. This overview describes the nature, distribution (national; regional; local), and setting (within the temple; within the precinct; outside the temple domain) of these festivals, as well as our main sources of information (reliefs; inscriptions; current research) relating to them. A few representative examples, including the national feast of the “Opening of the Year,” the regional “Beautiful Feast of Behdet,” involving Dendara and Edfu, and the local celebration of the “Coronation of the Sacred Falcon” in Edfu, are covered here in greater detail to exemplify the nature and proceedings of the festivals.[Source: Filip Coppens, Czech Institute of Egyptology, Charles University, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2009, escholarship.org ]
“Egyptian temple domains of Ptolemaic and Roman times formed the center stage for the dramatic performance of various cultic ceremonies, processions, and rituals throughout the year. The cultic activities performed in and around the temples are commonly divided, based on how frequently they took place, into two main types: daily rituals and annual festivals. These two types of ceremonies, in essence very similar and characterized by their cyclical nature (whether they took place every day or just once a year), reflect the Egyptian cyclical concept of time.
“In the daily rising and setting of the sun, the coming and going of the seasons, the phases of the moon, and the ever-recurring annual inundation of the Nile, the Egyptians observed the cyclical aspect of many natural phenomena and construed their ceremonies and festivals along a similar pattern. An ever- recurring theme in almost all festivals is their focus on fertility, birth, and the continued renewal of life. Also regularly featured in these festivals are the references to the confirmation of the existing world-order, personified by the legitimate pharaoh, and the victory over the forces of chaos.
“The essence of both the daily temple ritual and the annual festival consisted of “seeing the god” or “revealing his (i.e., the god’s) face” (mAA nTr/wn-Hr), and the “appearance” (xaw) and “coming out” (prt) of the statue of the deity. A recurring part of both the daily and the annual rites included the statue’s purification, anointment, clothing with linen, and adornment with regalia. In the daily temple ritual all activities remained confined to the main sanctuary of the temple; however, during the festivals the statues of the gods left the confines of their residence within the temple and often made a dramatic appearance in the outside world. The most typical and recurring aspect of all the festivals was indeed the appearance in procession of the statues of the gods from the sanctuary, chapels, or the temple crypts. This feature constitutes the major difference between the rather “passive” daily temple ritual and the “active” annual festivals..
“Processions with statues were reminiscent of the journey of the sun and the concept of (re)birth. Such processions often embarked from the darkness of the sanctuary or crypt, representing at times the netherworld or a tomb in which the “lifeless” statues resided, and proceeded to the sunlight outside the temple, which evoked notions of renewal and revitalization. The concept of a journey from darkness to light was also clearly reflected in the architectural layout of the temple: the statues of the gods left the sanctuary or crypt immersed in darkness, and on their way out passed through ever-broader and brighter halls, to finally appear through the gate of the pylon like the morning sun on the horizon.”
funeral procession
Sources on Temple Festivals of the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods
Filip Coppens of Charles University, Prague wrote: ““An important, if superficial, source of information on the numerous Egyptian festivals and processions is provided by the eleven extensive temple-calendars engraved upon the walls of the temples of Edfu, Kom Ombo, Dendara, and Esna. These calendars often provide little more than the name of the festival and the date and length of its celebration, which could last from a single day to several weeks. Occasionally, the calendars also indicate in a very general manner the main themes of the feast and at times even the location(s) where it took place, but do not allow any detailed reconstruction of the rituals carried out during the feast or their particular sequence. [Source: Filip Coppens, Czech Institute of Egyptology, Charles University, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2009, escholarship.org ]
“Another important, although indirect, source of information regarding the temple festivals comprises several of the decrees that resulted from the annual priestly synods at the Ptolemaic court in Alexandria. The organization of the temples and the cult, including the festivals, formed an important topic of debate during these meetings (consult Hölbl 2001: 77 - 123 for a general introduction to these decrees). Most of the feasts mentioned in the temple calendars and priestly decrees can be dated to much earlier periods in Egyptian history; nonetheless, for a significant number of festivals we possess few references from prior eras.
“Although only a fraction of the textual material on the organization of Egyptian feasts has been preserved, it has been possible to reconstruct with some degree of accuracy the actual proceedings of a very limited group of Ptolemaic and Roman festivals on the basis of a series of hymns and scenes engraved on the temple walls. This is particularly the case for the temples at Edfu, Dendara, and Esna, whose walls describe the various ritual events that took place during some of the festivals. These festivals and processions can be divided into different categories on the basis of their local setting (within the temple, and inside or outside the temple precinct) and their geographical importance or impact (national, regional and local).”
Processions During Ptolemaic-Roman-Era Temple Festivals
Filip Coppens of Charles University, Prague wrote: “A festive procession could take place within the temple itself, the statues being carried to other chapels or halls inside the temple or to constructions on its roof. The temples ofPtolemaic and Roman Egypt were especially suited for processions inside the temple. The increasing number of enclosure walls that surrounded the temple proper in this period formed a series of corridors that were used for festive processions, which thus took place in the open air but were still hidden from view. The celebration of the “Opening of the Year” (wp-rnpt)—heralding the arrival of the inundation—is an example of a festive procession that took place entirely within the temple walls. This feast of the New Year was a national festival celebrated in all temples, but it is best known from the temples of Edfu and Dendara. Although the specific rites and activities performed differed from place to place (often starting as early as the end of the month of Mesore and proceeding during the five epagomenal days), a general pattern of the processional activities has emerged for New Year’s Day. The statues would be carried in procession from their resting place in temple chapels and crypts to the complex of wabet and court—a set of two chambers consisting of an open court and a slightly elevated chapel—where they were purified, clothed, and adorned. The procession would then continue to a kiosk on the roof of the temple, where, through the ritual of the “opening of the mouth” and the exposure to the sunlight, the statues would be revitalized and reunited with their ba, or “divine power/manifestation”. [Source: Filip Coppens, Czech Institute of Egyptology, Charles University, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2009, escholarship.org ]
“Processions with statues were not limited to the interior halls and chapels of the temple, but also regularly took place outside the temple, either within or outside its precinct. These festivals offered the general population the opportunity of closer contact with their deities; thus multitudes of believers would gather along the procession routes, especially when the statues of the gods would leave the precinct. The processions also provided the Egyptians with the opportunity to make use of the oracular powers of their divinities.
“Within the temple precinct, the procession could journey towards the birth temple (“mammisi”) or the sacred lake, among other places. For instance, at the temple of Dendara, a large number of deity-statues often traveled to the bark station and the sacred lake in the month of Tybi, while the goddess Hathor journeyed in procession to the mammisi on no less than six occasions throughout the year.
“Of the processions that took place outside the temple precinct (occasions when the statue of the god would be carried, or sailed, to other temples or sacred sites), the best- known regional example from Ptolemaic times is undoubtedly the “Beautiful Feast of Behdet” (sHn nfr n BHdt). The central themes of this festival, which took place in the month of Epiphi, were fertility and regeneration. It was in essence a popular festival and involved the public more than most other festivals, since it took place largely outside the temple precinct. The festival is described in great detail and depicted on the walls of the open court in the temple of Edfu. It consisted of a 180-kilometer journey that the statue of the goddess Hathor undertook by boat from Dendara to Edfu. On the way to Edfu the procession would halt at several towns, including Thebes and Hierakonpolis, to pay a visit to the deities in the local temples. From Hierakonpolis onwards, the local form of the god Horus would accompany Hathor on her journey to Edfu in his own boat. Numerous pilgrims would gather at these towns to witness the procession of the goddess; other Egyptians would observe the boat of the goddess passing by from the shores of the Nile; and official delegations from, among other places, Elephantine and Hierakonpolis were sent to the final destination, Edfu, to partake in the festival. The central act of the festival was the visit of the main deities of Edfu (Horus and Hathor in particular) to the necropolis of Behdet to bring offerings to Edfu’s ancestor gods. The aim of the rites and acts performed was the regeneration of the ancestor gods, together with a general regeneration of the whole of Egypt.”
funeral procession
Ptolemaic-Roman-Era Festivals Held at a Single Temple
Filip Coppens of Charles University, Prague wrote: “In contrast to festivals celebrated nationwide or within a specific region, a large number of festivals were both geographically and theologically limited to a single temple and its immediate surroundings. These festivals had their own local character, often inspired by the local deities and the general nature of the temple. The proceedings of several of these feasts are known from the temples of Edfu, Dendara, and Esna. The temple precinct of Edfu was, for instance, the setting for a number of festive processions involving the falcon god Horus and often focusing on his association with the kingship of Egypt. [Source: Filip Coppens, Czech Institute of Egyptology, Charles University, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2009, escholarship.org ]
“The “Festival of the Coronation of the Sacred Falcon” (xaw nswt) was but one of many examples of this type of feast. It was celebrated during the first days of the month of Tybi and is depicted in detail on the inner face of the temple’s enclosure wall. The festival followed almost immediately upon the feasts surrounding the internment and resurrection of the god Osiris, in his role as ruler of Egypt and father of Horus, at the end of the month of Khoiak. On the first day of the fifth month of the year, Horus, as the son and legitimate heir of Osiris, assumed the kingship over the two lands. The annual Festival of the Coronation of the Sacred Falcon can be seen as a re-enactment of both Horus and the ruling pharaoh taking their rightful place upon the throne of Egypt. The main events of this festival consisted of a series of processions within the temple precinct. The main stages of the feast included: a procession of the falcon-headed statue of Horus from the sanctuary to the “Temple of the Sacred Falcon”, located in front of the main temple; the election of a sacred falcon, reared within the temple precinct, as the heir of the god; the display of this falcon (from the platform between the two wings of the pylon) to the crowd of people gathered in front of the temple; the falcon’s coronation in the temple; and, finally, a festive meal in the “Temple of the Sacred Falcon”. Another important festival in the temple of Edfu of which more than the name has been preserved is the “Festival of Victory” (Hb qnt). Depicted on the interior of the enclosure wall.
“The temple of Esna provided the setting of a series of local festivals celebrated throughout the year, described in detail on the columns of its pronaos. The most important of these festivals took place on the first day of Phamenoth and was a combination of the local festival of the “Installation of the Potter’s Wheel,” a feast of local deity Khnum, and the Memphite festival of “Lifting up the Sky,” in honor of the god Ptah. Other important feasts that took place in and around the temple of Esna were the celebrations surrounding the “Arrival of Neith in Sais” and the “Festival of the Victory of Khnum” in the month of Epiphi. One of the best-known local festivals celebrated in Dendara was the “Festival of Intoxication” (Hb tx). The feast, described in detail on the walls of the pronaos, was celebrated in the month of Thoth and focused on the return of “the raging goddess from the South” and her enthronement.
“Other local festivities, similar to the ones mentioned above, took place in temples throughout Egypt, but very little is known of the nature and procedures of most of these feasts. A singular concept, however, appears to have been at the core of the numerous festivals celebrated throughout the year in Ptolemaic and Roman temples: it brought the statues of the gods in procession out of the confines of their residence in the temple, and through the performance of a series of ritual activities aimed to secure an ever-continuing renewal of life, fertility, and the established world-order. Concomitantly, the festivals often provided a unique and undoubtedly dramatic opportunity for the local populace to come into contact with their deities.”
OPET FESTIVAL
The Opet Festival in Thebes was held annually during the season of Nile flooding. It celebrated the annual reunion of the Thebean Triad: the great god Amum, his wife Mut and their son Khonsu. Details of the ceremony are carved in a relief in the processionary colonnade in Luxor Temple.
The ceremony may be been developed by Queen Hatshepsut. Opet means "southern sanctuary," a reference to Luxor Temple, the southern temple in Thebes. The Opet Festival began on the nineteenth day of the second month of the flood (the end of August). Earlier versions of the festival lasted 11 days. By the 18th dynasty (1550-1298 B.C.) the festival was the main event on the Egyptian calendar. In Ramses II's time it continued for 27 days. The festival itself may have lasted into the Roman era.
The Egyptians believed that towards the end of annual agricultural cycle the gods and the earth became exhausted and needed a jolt from the chaotic energy of the cosmos to get the process going again. To achieve this goal magical regeneration was invoked at the annual Opet festival at Karnak and Luxor. Lasting for 27 days, it was also a celebration of the link between pharaoh and the god Amun. The main even t was procession that began at Karnak and ended at Luxor Temple, 2.4 kilometers (1½ miles) to the south. [Source: Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com] John Darnell of Yale University wrote: “The annual Opet Festival, during which the bark of Amun—and ultimately those of Mut, Khons, and the king as well—journeyed from Karnak to Luxor, became a central religious celebration of ancient Thebes during the 18th Dynasty. The rituals of the Opet Festival celebrated the sacred marriage of Amun—with whom the king merged—and Mut, resulting in the proper transmission of the royal ka and thus ensuring the maintenance of kingship. [Source: John Darnell, Yale, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
“Opet Festival, eponymous celebration of the month Paophi (second month of the Akhet season), was an annual event at the time of its earliest attestation during the reign of Hatshepsut . Opet began on II Akhet 15 under Thutmose III and lasted 11 days; by the beginning of the reign of Ramesses III, the festival stretched over 24 days, perhaps with three days added to the conclusion of the festival by the end of his reign (Grandet suggests a 24 day observance at Medinet Habu, with 27 days of festivities on the east bank). The eve of Opet was also observed , and a Festival of Amun that Occurs after the Opet Festival is also known. The final day of the festival occurred on III Akhet 2 during Piye’s visit to Thebes. The festival appears to have continued into the Roman Period, and echoes thereof may have survived in Coptic and Islamic celebrations as well.
“The name of the festival, Hb Ipt, relates to that of Luxor Temple, Ip(A)t-rsyt, which was perhaps the Upper Egyptian counterpart of an earlier Heliopolitan IpAt, the “southern” specification relating Luxor Temple to that northern shrine and not to Karnak; the Opet Festival’s relationship to Heliopolitan prototypes would explain a number of Heliopolitan toponyms that appear in Luxor Temple as probable references to portions or aspects of Luxor Temple itself. The participants may have considered the multiple-day event to consist of various sub- festivals grouped together.
Pictorial Evidence of the Opet Festival
John Darnell of Yale University wrote: “The ancient inscriptional sources for the events of the Opet Festival are primarily pictorial and mostly located within Karnak Temple: Hatshepsut and Thutmose III—Red Chapel, Karnak, and Deir el-Bahri; Thutmose III—Akhmenu, Karnak; Amenhotep III—third pylon, Karnak; Tutankhamen—colonnade hall, Luxor; Horemheb—court between the ninth and tenth pylons, Karnak; Sety I—hypostyle hall, Karnak; Ramesses II—court between the eighth and ninth pylons, Karnak; Ramesses III—bark shrine in first court, Karnak, and Medinet Habu; Herihor—Khons Temple, Karnak. Although no text overtly explains the significance of the event, the Opet-procession scenes of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III on the Red Chapel, and those of Tutankhamen in the colonnade hall, reveal a number of otherwise unattested aspects of the festival, with the scenes of Herihor in Khons Temple supplying additional details of the navigation; textually, the most explicit and nuanced indications of the significance of the festival are the songs recorded in Tutankhamen’s Opet scenes. [Source: John Darnell, Yale, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
An Egyptian feast by Edwin Longshed
“The earliest and one of the most informative series of scenes appears on the south side of the Red Chapel of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III at Karnak. These scenes reveal the transportation of the bark of Amun from Karnak along a land route; stopping at six bark shrines on the way to Luxor, Amun’s bark then returned to Karnak by water, his riverine barge towed by the royal barge. After a stop in the wsxt-Hbt, the festival courtyard of the temple, priests carried the portable bark to the chapel of Amenhotep I, Mn-mnw-Imn. To the accompaniment of singers, musicians, and acrobats, the bark finally made its way toward the Hwt-aAt (“the great mansion”) and ultimately the inner sanctuary of Karnak.
“Hatshepsut’s scenes attest six shrines—embellished with Osiride figures of the queen—along some portion of the route between Karnak and Luxor, the first in south Karnak possibly near the temple of Kamutef, the rest as yet unidentified. Portions of a structure of Hatshepsut, probably the shrine nearest the temple of Luxor, were incorporated into the bark shrine of Ramesses II in the first court, perhaps near the shrine’s original location. Although the assumed line of six shrines stretching between Karnak and Luxor—indicative of an entirely terrestrial journey—is uncertain, associations between the southern axis of Karnak and the Opet Festival support such a reconstruction. Only the bark of Amun appears under Hatshepsut, but by the reign of Tutankhamen, the barks of Amun, Mut, and Khons, along with that of the king, took part in the festival.
“The presence of Opet related scenes in the Akhmenu suggests that under the sole rule of Thutmose III, the festival may have begun in that temple. The bark of Amun would have exited the third pylon, as in the Tutankhamen scene on the west wall in the colonnade hall at Luxor. By the reign of Tutankhamen, and perhaps already under Amenhotep III, to judge from architectural evidence at Luxor Temple, the bark of Khons would have joined the procession in southern Karnak, before the entourage reached the area of the Mut Temple and the first of Hatshepsut’s shrines on the land route. Under Tutankhamen, after being joined by the bark of Mut, the procession then proceeded to the Nile embarkation, river west of Hatshepsut’s northernmost bark shrine. Although the New Kingdom riverine barge Amun-Userhat existed under Ahmose and some sort of vessel participated in the Beautiful Festival of the Wadi already during the early Middle Kingdom, the Opet scenes of Tutankhamen are the first to depict a river journey in both directions; the procession disembarked at Luxor (for a possible Luxor dock under Ramesses III, see Cabrol 2001: 607 - 608) and entered the court of Luxor Temple before the colonnade hall, ultimately through the west wall entrance of the Ramesside court. The text on a sphinx of Nectanebo I on the route between Karnak and Luxor describes the construction (refurbishment) of the route for Amun, r jr[=f] Xn=f nfr m Ipt rsyt, “so that he might carry out his good navigation in Luxor”, revealing that the basic sense of “navigation” would be the same for the deity traveling within the portable bark, both on the deck of the riverine barge and the shoulders of the priests.”
Early History of the Opet Festival
John Darnell of Yale University wrote: “Although the earliest attestation of the festival and the earliest surviving 18th Dynasty constructions at Luxor date to the reign of Hatshepsut, one expects an ultimate 11th Dynasty origin, as for the three other major nodes of the Theban festival cycle. A platform in the area of the ninth pylon at Karnak may date to the reign of Senusret I, suggesting the presence of a processional route leading south from Karnak, along the route of the later north- south axis, presumably connecting Middle Kingdom Karnak with a contemporaneous structure at or near the later Luxor Temple. [Source: John Darnell, Yale, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
The reign of Amenhotep III molded the procession and its architectural destination into the forms we recognize. Amenhotep III embellished Luxor Temple considerably, notably with the colonnade hall, an elaborate bark shrine as columned hall (like the hypostyle hall at Karnak); he may also have constructed a maru-temple in association with the Opet Festival. The architecture of the rooms immediately south of the hypostyle hall of Luxor Temple suggests that the bark of the king, first visible in Tutankhamen’s Opet scenes, was already an element of the procession under Amenhotep III.
The transformation of Amenhotep III from an individual ruler to the personification of the royal ka through a blurring of the boundary between the person of the king and the royal ka-nature in the rear rooms of Luxor Temple suggests that the Opet Festival under Amenhotep III and his successors became amongst other things a ritual of reconfirming the transmission of the royal ka. A later ruler might also begin to mingle his identity with that of an earlier incarnation of the royal ka, and a statue of the celebrating ruler’s immediate (legitimate) predecessor may have participated in the festival.”
Rituals at the Opet Festival
Scene from the King's 30 year jubilee
The climatic rituals of the Opet Festival occurred in the Sacrarium of Amenophis III (next to the Courtyard of Amenophis III of Luxor Temple). The pharaoh followed his priests into the inner sanctums of Luxor temple where no one else was allowed to go and performed rites to renew the energy of the Pharaoh and the gods for another year. Describing the rite for Ramses II Rick Gore wrote in National Geographic, "Wearing the solar crown with solar disks, ram's horns and cobras — symbols of divine rule — Ramses offers flowers and incense, dropping an aromatic pellet into a burner...Arum returns fumes, thereby renewing Ramses's own divinity."♣
The ritual offering of flowers, associated with regeneration, intensified during the feast, and people presented them in holders shaped like anks. Festival attendees scraped dust from the temples for healing and devotion, a practice that still remains today. Egyptologist Salima Ikram of Cairo’s American University told U.S. News and World Report, “Men drink their temple scrapings in tea to become more potent — early Viagra! — and said that women circle ths stone scarab near Karnak’s sacred lake seven times as a fertility ritual Haggag el Uqsuri in Luxor is a modern “moulid” (festival) that honor’s Luxor’s patron saint, Abu el Haggag, a 12th century Sufi mystic. It is believed to be based on the ancient Egyptian Opet Festival.
During the festival the people were given over 11000 loaves of bread and more than 385 jars of beer, and some were allowed into the temple to ask questions of the god. The priests spoke the answers through a concealed window high up in the wall, or from inside hollow statues.
Procession at the Opet Festival
The focal point of the early version of the festival was a procession in which the statue of Amun-Re, carried by 30 priests, and the statues of Mut and Kohonsu, were transported in boat shrines from the Temple of Karnak to the Temple of Luxor. The statues remained in the sanctuary of Luxor Temple for a couple of days before being carried back to Karnak on sacred boats.
Large crowds of people came out for processions. Merrymakers sang hymns, drank wine, anointed themselves with unguent and placed flowers on their heads. Participants in the procession included the Pharaoh, royal charioteers, priests, incense burners, fan bearers, bureaucrats, soldiers, musicians, singers and dancers. Female acrobats performed to rhythm of castanets, drums and sistrum rattles and priests carried offerings such as cattle, gazelles, wine, fruit, bouquets and lotus flowers. ♀
Thutmosis III at the Sed Festival
In a later version of the festival the pharaoh and the statues were carried to Luxor on ceremonial barges, which moved upstream with sails and two lines pulled by men on the shore. At the end of the festival the barge was carried downstream by the current.
Mark Millmore wrote in discoveringegypt.com: “The statue of the god Amun was bathed with holy water, dressed in fine linen, and adorned in gold and silver jewellery. The priests then placed the god in a shrine and onto the ceremonial barque supported by poles for carrying. Pharaoh emerged from the temple, his priests carrying the barque on their shoulders, and together they moved into the crowded streets. A troop of Nubian soldiers serving as guards beat their drums, and musicians accompanied the priests in song as incense filled the air. [Source: Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com]
At Luxor, Pharaoh and his priests entered the temple and ceremonies were performed to regenerate Amun, recreate the cosmos and transfer Amun’s power to Pharaoh. When he finally emerged from the temple sanctuary, the vast crowds cheered him and celebrated the guaranteed fertility of the earth and the expectation of abundant harvests.
John Darnell of Yale University wrote: “By the late 18th Dynasty, both legs of the procession traveled on the Nile, with accompanying elements keeping pace on land. Tutankhamen’s scenes allude to the terrestrial route by depicting two empty royal chariots, attended by charioteers—elements from the daily Amarna chariot ride of the royal Atenist couple in and out of Akhetaten, transported to Thebes and incorporated into the Opet Festival. The bark of the king makes its first appearance in the Opet-procession scenes of Tutankhamen at Luxor Temple as a carrier for the processional image of the divine ruler. The bark of the king leaves Karnak and returns thereto, but is not present in Luxor Temple in Tutankhamen’s scenes of the festival—apparently the king has merged with Amun during the procession into Luxor making the royal bark superfluous. Amun of Luxor appears to have been a fecundity figure, both ram- headed and ithyphallic anthropomorphic, related to Nubia and the inundation, appropriate both to the southern node of the east bank Theban festival cycle and to the ram-form of the deified ruler in Nubia. [Source: John Darnell, Yale, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
Participants of the Opet Festival
Scenes from the King's 30 year jubilee
John Darnell of Yale University wrote: “Accompanying the singing priests and priestesses are dancing foreigners: soldiers dressed as Libyans and using throwsticks as clappers, and Nubians leaping and swaying in a type of military dance with clubs. The presence of Nubians and Libyans is probably meant to evoke the groups amongst whom the solar eye goddess has recently sojourned, members of whom join her entourage for the return to Egypt. Also acrobatic dancers accompany the festival procession, the backward-leaning dance at once an evocation of the dance of the four winds and a display of eroticism. [Source: John Darnell, Yale, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
“Soldiers and sailors are the most numerous of the festival participants in the colonnade hall scenes, and a number of military and civil officials participated in the preparations and execution of the Opet Festival; Ramesses II listed amongst those responsible for arranging the festival: members of the civil administration, provincial governors, border officials, heads of internal economic departments, officers of the commissariat, city officials, and upper ranks of the priesthood. In addition to overseeing aspects of the food preparation and rowing and towing the divine barges, at least one military official pronounces a hymn in honor of the king in front of the Opet-procession as it heads to Luxor on the west interior wall of the colonnade hall.
“The general populace appears to have been able to observe from the riverbanks, and at least some may have had limited access to the forepart of the temple. Celebrants may also have observed the event at other locations, such as the mortuary temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu, and a transplantation to Abydos appears to have occurred. Oracular manifestations of Amun could also occur during the festival, further relating events of the festival procession to the populace. During the second regnal year of a late 21st Dynasty ruler, the bark of Amun refused to leave his sanctuary for the Opet Festival, which finally took place sixty-five days later than usual, on day 23 of Khoiak, after the priest whose offenses occasioned the delay had appeared before a tribunal.”
Consummation of the Divine Union at the Opet Festival
Sed Festival scene
John Darnell of Yale University wrote: “Opet was not, however, solely a festival of royal identification with Amun. The riverine procession and the divine birth chamber become in late temple ritual the navigation of a god or goddess to the other to consummate the union that will result in the divine birth of the child god depicted—in borrowing from royal iconography of the New Kingdom—in the birth chamber of the temple, the mammisi. Opet was also a hieros gamos, a divine marriage, the result of which was the renewal of Amun in the person of his ever- renewing human vessel, the reigning king. [Source: John Darnell, Yale, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
As the Amun-Min procession related the physical ruler to his predecessors, so the Opet Festival celebrated the renewal of the ka-force of Amun, and the transmission of the spirit of kingship in the eternal present. As a festival of annual renewal, the Opet Festival could reconfirm the royal coronation, which under Horemheb actually occurred at the time of the Opet Festival. The final major festival of Luxor, the Decade Festival with its visit to Medinet Habu, brought Amun of Luxor into contact with the entropic forces of death through his meeting with the primeval and transcendental forms of Amun and the Ogdoad on the west bank of Luxor.
“The union of a god with his temple may appear as a sexual union, and the nautical element of the Opet Festival is appropriate to a divine marriage ritual. Although absent from later Opet scenes, Hatshepsut’s Red Chapel records a harpist singing a song referring to the ithyphallic form of the double-plumed Amun, raised of arm (Dsr-a). Songs in the tomb of Amenemhat also refer to the appearance of the god from the temple and describe the temple of Karnak as a woman, drunk in religious ecstasy and attired in erotically Hathoric coiffure, awaiting with bed linens the arrival of the god—although that song is not clearly specific to Opet, the content may mirror that of the unrecorded song of the Red Chapel’s Opet harpist.”
Opet Festival Songs
John Darnell of Yale University wrote: “The Tutankhamen scenes record the texts of three songs accompanying the navigations, chanted by priests and priestesses. First Song:
“Oh Amun, Lord of the Thrones of the Two[Lan]ds, may you live forever!
A drinking place is hewn out, the sky is folded back to the south;
a drinking place is hewn out, the sky is folded back to the north;
that the sailors of Tutankhamen (usurped by Horemheb), beloved of Amun-Ra-Kamutef,
praised of the gods, may drink.” [Source: John Darnell, Yale, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
“The directions, south and north, may allude to the southeast to northwest flight of the sun . The implied south to north journey of this song—like the actual return to Karnak from Luxor at the end of the Opet Festival—relates to the royal New Year’s Festival and the return of the wandering solar goddess from the south. The drinking place would be one of the booths that celebrants erected during nautical festivals. Such booths are consistent with the aspect of sexual union inherent in the Opet Festival; Neith probably appears in her role as “Lady of inebriation in the (season of) the fresh inundation waters”. The journey by land and a return by river—as the Opet Festival appears under Hatshepsut and Thutmose III—would thus evoke the dry period prior to the union of the god and returning solar goddess, the return to the north by river likewise emphasizing the returning flood. The journey to the south by land, and the towing of the barks against the current in the southerly riverine journey, also mirrored the nocturnal journey of the sun in the dry realms of the Land of Sokar. The sails of the barks appear to have been red in color, the return journey to Karnak thus evoking the red light of dawn, the veil of the new born solar deity.
“Second Song: Recitation:
“Hail, Amun, primeval one of the Two Lands, foremost one of Karnak,
in your glorious appearance amidst your [riverine] fleet,
on your beautiful Festival of Opet— May you be pleased with it.”
Third Song:: Recitation four times—Recitation for the bark:
“A drinking place is built for the party, which is in the voyage of the fleet.
The ways of the Akeru are bound up for you; Hapi is high.
May you pacify the Two Ladies, oh Lord of the White Crown/Red Crown.
It is Horus, strong of arm, who conveys the god with she the good one of the god.
For the king has Hathor already done the best of good things.”
Festival Hall of Thutmose III
The ways of Aker allude to the east/west axis of the solar journey, parallel to the first song’s “royal” south/north axis The songs associate the festival journey to the course of the sun , and at the same time allude to sexuality. The “best of good things” finds echoes in New Kingdom love poetry, a term for the consummation of sexual union. A further detail confirming the sexual aspect of the festival is a statement of a priest who bends forward and addresses the bark of Amun as it emerges from Luxor Temple at the end of the Opet Festival: “How weary is the cackling goose!”. This short statement alludes to the cry of creation uttered by the great cackler in the eastern horizon, appropriate to the smn-goose form of Amun as the deity prepares to sail to Karnak.”
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Tour Egypt, Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com; Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Last updated September 2018