Festivals in Ancient Egypt
Festivals in Ancient Egypt | Egyptian & Pharaohs Celebrations

Festivals in Ancient Egypt | Holidays of Pharaohs, Ancient Egyptian Celebrations

Facts, History celebrations and Feasts in Pharaonic Civilization, Egyptian Pharaohs kings religious festivals and more about Wag, God Thoth, God Sokar, Sed Festival, Opet Festival and more about Ancient Egypt History.

Discover the celebrations of the ancient Egyptians, the Pharaohs, the most important feast and festivals that were held in the civilization of ancient Egypt, and more.

Festivals in Ancient Egypt

There are many holiday classifications based on certain bases, for example, holidays have been divided into:

  • Agricultural Festivals in Ancient Egypt, which are related to agricultural life such as sowing and ploughing.
  • Seasonal Festivals, celebrated in spring, mid-summer and autumn.
  • Calendar Festivals, which depend on the location of the sun and the shape of the moon and the shape of any year.
  • Family Festivals in Ancient Egypt, which depend on certain events that occur within the family.
  • Feasts of the dead, through the memory of the deceased and be honorific at certain times.
  • Festivals related to the life of the people, such as the day of the coronation and the seating of the king on the throne.
  • Special Festivals, such as holidays where the founder or unifier of the state is celebrated.

The number of periodic holidays in ancient Egypt was about 282, and the number of important holidays throughout Egypt was 79, with the total number of nights of public holidays in ancient Egypt (169) one hundred and sixty-nine nights, some of which overlap in time, and one night every four years is the birthday of Thoth “The Egyptian Gods“.

What is the most famous Festivals in Ancient Egypt?

  1. Coronation of the Pharaohs
  2. Sed Festival.
  3. Opet Festival.
  4. Flooding of the Nile.
  5. Wheat Harvest Feast.

List of Ancient Egyptian Festivals & Celebrations

Ancient Egypt, in the era of the Pharaohs, was interested in holding a host of feasts and celebrations, as it was distinguished in a way that was not preceded by any other type of civilization in the same era.

And this is what the famous Greek historian Herodotus mentioned about the holding of many celebrations among the ancient Egyptians and the Pharaohs, which made him believe that the ancient civilization of Egypt was the one that previously invented the various feasts in the world.

Festivals in the ancient Egyptian calendar

  1. Flooding of the Nile
  2. Egyptian New Year
  3. The nayrouze
  4. Eve Wag
  5. Wag Festival
  6. Anniversary of my conversion
  7. yed akh
  8. Harvests
  9. God Osiris Parade
  10. Rights Advocacy Day
  11. Day of Peace
  12. Day of Prayer
  13. Mekhet Festival
  14. Weavers’ Day (Nate)
  15. Acquitte Day the Eye God Horus
  16. Pot of the feast of God Neith.
  17. Perpendicular sun
  18. Ramses’ birthday)
  19. White Crown Day
  20. Opt for openness
  21. God Khnum Festival
  22. Oupet Parade
  23. Unification of the two lands
  24. Feast of Monthu
  25. Feast of Satis and Anoukis
  26. Earth Day
  27. Only festival
  28. God Amun protector of the weak
  29. Judicial authority
  30. The day of the court’s decision.
  31. The king’s seat on the throne.
  32. African weapons
  33. God Hathor Festival
  34. Osiris tree
  35. Prosecution Day
  36. God Sokar Festivals in Ancient Egypt
  37. Lift a column even
  38. God Min Festival
  39. Happy Day
  40. Ykaku Festival
  41. God Wadjet Naval Parade
  42. Bastet Naval Parade
  43. The name of the festival
  44. Willow elevator
  45. Feast of Sechat
  46. Death Parade
  47. God Anubis Naval Parade
  48. Horus to Ma’aa God Ptah
  49. The sun is perpendicular to the day of the sitting of Ramses
  50. Holidays in the sun
  51. Ptah Festival
  52. Amenhotep Festivals in Ancient Egypt
  53. Horus to Buto
  54. The conclusion of Amenhotep’s work
  55. Hathor, God Bastet
  56. Bastet in her boat.
  57. Sham El-Nessim
  58. Celebration of God Ra
  59. Wheat Day
  60. Horus fabric
  61. Yield Festival
  62. Feast of Horus
  63. Anubis Day
  64. Min Festivals in Ancient Egypt
  65. Celebration of Hathor
  66. Festival of the Valley
  67. Point Night
  68. Purity Day
  69. Feast of Merit Amon
  70. Horus hosts
  71. The return of Senoohi
  72. Birthday of Hathor.
  73. Pamper Horus
  74. Feast of All Lords
  75. Abib Feast
  76. Opening of the year
  77. Azuir Generator
  78. Muttad Time
  79. Generator Six
  80. God Isis Generator
  81. God Nephthys Generator
  82. A generator that will be transformed.

Opet Festival in Ancient Egypt

Facts and History of Feast of Opet, Secrets Celebration of the Opet of the Pharaohs as a celebration the king through the road of ram.

which was held in the city of ThebesLuxor“, starting from the era of the modern state and beyond, as start from The era of The New Kingdom in ancient Egypt, the beginning of the rule of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, especially King Ahmose I.

The Feast of the Night of the Pharaohs is one of the ancient Egyptian celebrations that were held in Thebes, and the celebration began in the era of the modern state until the ages beyond. Learn about the rituals of this celebration in addition to another set of information mentioned below as in Ancient Egyptian religion.

What did the Opet Festival celebrate?

  • The Feast of the Night of the Pharaohs, or the Feast of the Beautiful Abt, is an annual celebration in which the Pharaohs perform a set of rituals.
  • One of the most important rituals that take place in this celebration, which is to accompany statues of some of the machine, and they are “The Theban Triad – Amun and God Mut and their son God Khonsu.”
  • These statues are transported discreetly by a sacred vehicle, and that vehicle escorts the statues in a procession of great ceremonies.
  • The procession march starts from the Temple of Amun in Karnak Temple to the Luxor Temple, ie the procession extends for approximately 2 km.
  • One of the essential events of this celebration is the meeting of Amun-Ra from Karnak with Amun of Luxor to know more about Festivals in Ancient Egypt.
  • The coronation of the new king is often an event also done in such a ceremony.
  • At the beginning of this celebration, the statues were transported through sacred boats, but then began to transport the statues by boats in the river and not by wild rams.
  • The celebration takes place in the second month of the “Akht” season, which is a season for the flooding of the Nile River. as in Agriculture in Ancient Egypt.

What is the great festival in ancient Egypt?

  • Opet Festival took a major form when the 18th Dynasty assumed power in Egypt, after the Hyksos were expelled from Egypt after they occupied it for nearly 200 years as in Ancient Egyptian Government.
  • The keenness of the rulers of Egypt at the beginning of the New Kingdom, which was approximately in 1539 BC, to hold ceremonies in Thebes to consolidate its authority.
  • The celebration during the reign of King Thutmose III was one of the most important celebrations that take place in Egypt, so that the celebration took nearly 11 days.
  • Festivals in Ancient Egypt began to increase in the number of days at the beginning of the reign of King Ramses III from Twentieth Egyptian DynastyThe Ramesside Period“, and the number of days of celebration reached 24, and even reached 27 days.
  •  The path of the procession between the Egyptian Temples changes with the passage of time and also varies from one era to another.
  • The Feast of the Sabbath is not only the procession of going, the procession of return is also part of the celebration.
  • There are inscriptions found in the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut in Deir El Bahari Building by Queen Hatshepsut, that describe the celebration, and it is said in those inscriptions that the celebration includes a very large group of people with noisy and use Music in Ancient Egypt.
  • There are also priests and sistrum rattles are used, which make musical sounds for the celebration, and the bark of the gods is carried on the shoulders of the priests to reach the holy sanctuary.
  • The bark returns again after the ceremony is completed to Karnak.

When was the Opet Festival?

  • The pharaoh was the mediator between the people and the gods in this Festivals in Ancient Egypt.
  • The ceremony begins to celebrate the marriage of the pharaoh to the gods, and thanks to this celebration, the pharaoh became a prophet of Amun-Ra, “the king of the gods.”
  • The pharaoh was responsible for the establishment of religious rites, and the common people were among the people who did not participate in such rituals.
  • Since the Karnak area was the place of passage for the celebration procession, the pharaohs were interested in it throughout the ages.
  • Therefore, King Thutmose I expanded Karnak in the New Kingdom, and the area of ​​Karnak reached nearly 2 square miles.
  • There were many Egyptian Monuments related to the celebration in Karnak, as it was the place of worship and religious rituals for the celebration.
  • There is a text on the The Sphinx of Giza in The Pyramids of Giza in Cairo describing the text between Karnak and Luxor.
  • Using the river to move from Karnak to Luxor is a symbol of the beginning of the flood, and moving by land was a sign of a phase of drought.
  • A funerary plaque was discovered outside the Karnak temple, and it shows the sailboats that were used for transportation as used in Trade in Ancient Egypt.
  • The use of these boats was the reason for the widespread spread of this celebration to know more about Industry in ancient Egypt.

Why were Opet Festival important in ancient Egypt?

  • The ancient Egyptian believed that he lacked science to understand some events such as climate changes and other signs as in Astronomy in ancient Egypt and Ancient Egyptian science.
  • Therefore, the ancient Egyptian was trying to offer what could be offered to please the gods, so that the Egyptian would get what he wanted, including making offerings to the gods.
  • Sacrifice and prayer, as well as celebrations and feasts, is a method used by the ancient Egyptians to strengthen their relationship with the Egyptian deities .
  • The Feast of the Night was one of the contacts that existed between the ancient Egyptians and the gods.
  • The pharaoh began to act as a mediator between the gods and the people through the birth of the pharaoh as the birth of a new god “the pharaoh” who can communicate with the gods.
  • That view of the pharaoh as a new born god made the divine rule solid.
  • It is said that the Festivals in Ancient Egypt or celebration of the Abite was to enhance the fertility of agricultural lands, so the celebration took place during the flood season of the Nile.
  • The celebration included all segments of society as in Social Structure in Ancient Egypt, such as provincial governors, border keepers, officers in Military of ancient Egypt and senior ranks of the city, who are responsible for the celebration.
  • Avenue of Sphinxes was renovated on November 25, 2021, and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism announced that the ceremony would be held annually.

Sed Festival – Heb Sed or Feast of the Tail

Sed Festival “Heb Sed”, Discover Facts, History Feast of the Tail in Pharaonic Civilization & Festivals in Ancient Egypt – celebrations and Feasts and more…

Festivals in Ancient Egypt. Find out the facts about the reason for the celebration of the Tail Festival in the civilization of ancient Egypt, what the pharaonic ceremonies were, as one of the most important official holidays, and more secrets.

Sed Festival, or as it is also called the Feast of the Tail, was an ancient Egyptian pharaonic celebration in which the great celebration took place in the country of the rule of the new pharaoh, which would be the continuation of Egypt. As that name was taken in that period from the name of the Egyptian god in the era of the Pharaohs and Bawaut or Dam.

Sed Festival – Festivals in Ancient Egypt

The Pharaonic king wears a necklace on his chest and a short kilt and runs while holding the royal flail to renew his activity and express the extent of his strength and celebrate the 30th anniversary of his reign on the throne of ancient Egypt.

In addition, thanks and appreciation and making offerings to the ancient Egyptian gods show that he completed all the tasks assigned to him during his reign.

What happened at the Sed festival? Festivals in Ancient Egypt

  • The Feast of the Tail is the Feast of the Dam. It is a much less common name as it is derived from the term animal tail, as it was the one that was usually attached during that period with the distinctive background in the dress of the pharaoh during the lava of those early periods of ancient Egyptian Pharaonic history.
  •  It may also be believed that this tail or that name came from the remains of a ceremonial garment that they wore at an earlier time, which was made of the skin of a whole animal.
  • It is also very likely that this official celebration in the country of the Dam Festival is one of those ancient Pharaonic traditions.
  • Where it is believed that that royal or pharaonic authority was not given in that period originally to that pharaoh except for a period of up to thirty years, as he is deposed at the end of that period or that he is killed.
  • Accordingly Festivals in Ancient Egypt, the researchers believe that the feast is a dam or a feast of a tail that was originally nothing but a barbaric habit that had remained for us from the remaining heritage of the pharaohs in ancient times.
  • But it had taken the dye or the image and the most human form of the form it was before, so instead of the isolation of that pharaoh, it was already appearing after the lapse of the thirty-year period specified for him.
  •  To make her sermon appear as if he was a new king of manna for Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt together, and accordingly, and with the presence of this strange or artificial renewal, a new power was emanating from the millennium, with which he could succeed in starting a new era in Ainya.

What is the Sed festival in Ancient Egypt?

  • Also, this archaeological or pharaonic celebration, which was originally, as mentioned in the Egyptian Mythology, occurs only once every thirty years, and it appears that it was happening in long periods since the rule of the clay age, but in less time.
  • But the pharaonic name, as a festival of dam, had remained as old as it was, and since that pharaonic king had a certain divine character, those pharaonic holidays that were actually held before to glorify the gods had a very great importance.

What is the biggest Festivals in Ancient Egypt?

  • Festivals in Ancient Egypt, it is believed that this great celebration that takes place every thirty years may have been established in ancient times in order to succeed in replacing a number of rituals that were held in order to kill that ruling pharaoh who is unable in any way To continue to rule in order to rule the country effectively, whether because of his old age or even the deterioration of his health.
  • In the end, this celebration was held after the Pharaoh continued for a period of thirty years in taking charge of the affairs of the country, and then some determination was held approximately every three or four years.
  • As it was held in the basis of the solution to renew the power of that pharaoh and then increase his possible endurance, and therefore he succeeds in celebrating his continued success for the country.

Ritual occasions – Festivals in Ancient Egypt:

The ritual of events is not daily and not periodic at the same time, and includes the rituals of birth, construction, marriage and death, which occur only once in human life, such as birth and death, some of which can be repeated, such as construction and marriage.

In its profound sense, periodic rituals represent opportunities to recall the eternal or the first days of creation and the first time when the universe, gods, man, time, place and things appeared in general. Holidays, which take on the character of weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual or certain years (every 30 years as on the Egyptian 30th anniversary), do not take the traditional normal historical time that we see in the remaining days and months, but rather another exceptional moment that seems to be part of the initial time or methamphetamine.

That is, we are referring to a conflict between historical and non-historical times, or between worldly and religious times. This religious time has always revived or regenerated the dying historical (worldly) time.

Festivals in Ancient Egypt, one of the most important pharaonic feasts that took place in ancient Egypt was the Opet Festival, along with the Beautiful Valley Festival.

Did ancient Egypt have holidays? Festivals in Ancient Egypt

  • Where many of the Pharaonic scenes of the Opet Festival were depicted on the various walls of the Luxor Temple,  Shows the extent of development in Architecture in ancient Egypt and Sculpture in Ancient Egypt.
  • Where on that great feast invented by the ancient Egyptians, the famous god Amun-Ra in ancient Egypt visited, and he is the lord of the temples of Karnak, as well as his wife, the goddess Mut, and that visit took place in the Luxor Temple; The purpose of that visit was for God to renew both his strength and his vitality.
  • As the king was the first person responsible to lead that grand and majestic procession; This is so that after that energy, vitality, and strength with God will pass on to him too. In this way, he is already fit to take over the rule of the country and the interests of the people.
  • We come after that to the feast of the beautiful valley “Festivals in Ancient Egypt”, that feast that was held in Pharaonic Egypt to be in honor of the dead, and at that time the Trinity of Thebes was coming out, that trinity that was composed of both the god Amun, and with him his wife, the goddess Mut, and at the same time their son, the god Khonsu, was present Where they were in their sacred boats,
  • And they used to go in their boats in a very large procession that was held for the celebrations to the extent of the western mainland in order to inspect and visit all those funerary Mortuary Temples that belonged to the kings of the dead before and to see their tombs in the presence, Such as the tombs of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens to bury the Mummy of the Pharaonic queens of Egypt “Female Pharaohs“, in light of the presence of The Pharaonic Tombs from Thebes, “Tombs of The Nobles in Luxor ”.
  • The people of Thebes also offered a number of offerings and a set of sacrifices and flowers that they used to take to the boats of the Holy Trinity.
  • They also used to take a number of wonderful flowers that are filled with the fragrance that they took from the Ancient Egyptian gods and Goddesses, and then they used to put them on the tombs that belong to their relatives as an expression of their love and at the same time their respect for them; But the most important thing was their belief that these flowers would bring them closer to God.

Why did the Egyptians celebrate the Nile river?

Festivals in Ancient Egypt, at the beginning of each year, especially on the first of the month of Tut, in the season of Akhet, or the season of the famous flood, the ancient Egyptians used to celebrate a famous feast for them at that time, which was the New Year, the time that coincided with the famous Feast of the Nile That it is the time when the fields and crops were renewed, and the Nile was also overflowing.

This flood was celebrated because it caused great prosperity and happiness in the country. And that Nile was already renewed every year. And he was with him at the same time, renewing all those powers inherent in the statue of God, because of what happens in contact with the disk of the sun.

What was the ancient Egyptian wedding tradition?

Festivals in Ancient Egypt did not end at this point, but there was another major feast or celebration that was known as the Feast of the Beautiful Meeting or the other famous name, which is the Feast of the Holy Marriage.

Where the statue of the goddess of love and motherhood and at the same time the goddess of beauty and music, which is the goddess Hathor, used to move, as she moved every year from her temple in the Temple of Dendera region in Qena and great procession dedicated to her, which was led by the ruler of the city; Its purpose was for her to spend some time with her husband, the sacred god Horus, in the Temple of Edfu in Aswan.

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Festivals in Ancient Egypt | Facts, History celebrations and Feasts in Pharaonic Civilization
Festivals in Ancient Egypt | Facts, History celebrations and Feasts in Pharaonic Civilization

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Tamer Ahmed
Eng. Tamer Ahmed | Author & Researcher in History of Ancient Egypt Pharaohs. Booking Your Tours Online Whatsapp: +201112596434