Lunar Festivals (Egypt)

Written by Alexandra V. Mironova.

Lunar festivals were part of the lunar calendar, which was used in Egypt as early as in the Predynastic period, as a religious calendar fixing time of holding festivities. The earliest testimonies are dated to the epoch of the Old Kingdom. Since the IV dynasty, there have been lists of monthly offerings on the walls of mastaba. Lunar festivals are mentioned also in the Pyramid Texts, the Coffin Texts, the Book of Dead, in the temple calendar lists. It is known from the calendar of the Amon Temple in Karnak, for instance, that in the epoch of Thutmose III (15^th century BCE), they celebrated about 28 lunar festivals (Urk. IV, 177). As it is mentioned in the inscriptions of the tomb of Khnumhotep II (XII dyn.), those festivals were organized regularly.

In Ancient Egyptian language, the Moon was usually called iax with a determinative of rising moon  (N 11) or (N 12). In the Coffin Texts, ‘moon’ was written with a determinative of god and was interpreted as god. The Moon was associated with such personified deities as Thoth, Khonsu, Osiris, and Anubis. Another symbol of the Moon was udjat eye or the Eye of Horus healed later by Thoth. In the Hathor Temple in Dendera (Greek-Roman time), there is a depiction of 14 gods personifying days of a lunar month. They are presented going up the stairs to the temple roof, where the Eye of Horus, protected by Thoth and symbolizing the full moon, is located. Similar scenes presenting the lunar cycle can be found also in reliefs of the temples of Karnak and Deir el-Haggar (Priskin 2016).

Depiction of 14 gods and the Eye of Horus from the Hathor Temple in Dendera (drawing)
(Herbin 1982, fig. 1)

The period of rising moon was associated with the mythological event of completing, healing the Eye of Horus, which was, in turn, associated with the Sun, the king crown, uraeus. In the Coffin Texts, dead is identified with Thoth, who protects and fills the Eye of Horus in the Day of new moon (СТ VII, 230). The end of the process of completing/healing the Eye of Horus was interpreted as the day of full moon — the time when the Moon rises in the east and sets in the west, passing the way equal the daily route of the Sun. That time was connected to the ideas on resurrection and renovation of the forces of nature, gods, and humans, especially of dead ancestors.

The most mentioned festivals in religious texts are those of new moon, the first lunar day, the 6^th and the 7^th days, and full moon. On those days, they made offerings for the sake of resurrection of dead. The full moon day was understood as the time of purification, and, evidently, was chosen for the ceremony of mummification. Since the New Kingdom, an image of Anubis has been depicted in temple reliefs, in the scenes of the deliverance of king; Anubis is staying near the disc of full moon or is holding it in his hands. Such image indicated the role of Anubis as embalmer who helped dead to be resurrected; at that, dead was similized with Osiris and new moon (Ritner 1985). The appearance of the moon crescent over the western horizon, as well as the appearance of full moon in the east, was associated with the resurrection of dead. In the Pyramid Texts, they say that, on such festival days, dead king gets water (РТ 811а), connected to the motif of resurrection.

The second part of the lunar cycle is not mentioned either in the Pyramid Texts, or in the Coffin Texts, possibly, because that period was connected with death. As it was found by J. Spiegel, in the days when the funeral ritual for king was performed, from new moon till the sunrise, those were rites of the resurrection of dead for the sake of his life in the afterworld (Spiegel 1956, 411). That is, the periods of waning and growing moon were associated, correspondingly, with the death and the resurrection of king. At that, the day of new moon had double meaning: on one hand, it was connected to the resurrection, from another hand, it reflected an intermediate state of dead between the deaf and the life, which could be explained with the peculiarity of new moon, not visible on the sky.

Festivals of a lunar month not rarely were celebrated together with other festivities. The festival of new moon was of special popularity; it was associated with the Festival of the Valley, the Min festival, and Heb Sed. In the reign of Thutmose III, on new moon, they held the 10^th festival of Amon-Ra and laid the foundation of the Ahmen Temple in Karnak (Urk. IV, 836. 1–3). Besides, on the new moon day, Thutmose III established the festival of victory on the case of the victory of Egyptian army at Megiddo, which took place on new moon, in the 23^rd year of his reign (Urk. IV, 657).

Days of a lunar month (Parker 1950, 11, tabl. 2)

Bibliography

• Mironova A.V. Solyarno-lunnyi tsikl v drevneegipetskom prazdnike Opet v epokhu Tutmosa III (XV vek do n.e.) (The solar and lunar cycle in the Ancient Egyptian festival of Opet in the epoch of Thutmose III (15^th century BCE) // Gumanitarni studiї: zbirnik naukovikh prats / edit. А.Е. Konver’sky. Kiev: Kievan Taras Shevchenko National University, 2008. Iss. 4. P. 144–147.

• Mironova A.V. Prazdnik polnoluniya v khrame Hathor v Dendere (The Full Moon festival in the Hathor Temple in Dendera) // Drevnost’: istoricheskoe znanie i spetsifika istochnika. Materials of Int. Conf., for the memory of E. А. Grantovsky and D. S. Raevsky (Moscow, December 12–14, 2011 г.) / edit. А.S. Balakhvantsev, G.Yu. Kolganov. Iss. V. Moscow: Oriental Studies Institute of the RASc, 2011. P. 145–148.

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• Herbin F.-R. Hymne à la lune croissante // BIFAO. 1982. T. 82. P. 237–282

• Parker R. A. The Calendars of Ancient Egypt. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago pr., 1950 (SAOC, 26).

• Priskin G. The Depictions of the Entire Lunar Cycle in Graeco-Roman Temples // The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 2016. Vol. 102. P. 111–144.

• Ritner R. Anubis and the Lunar Disc // The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 1985. Vol. 71. P. 149–155.

• Spiegel J. Das Aufstehungsritual des Unaspyramide // ASAE. 1956. Vol. 52. №2. S. 339–439.

• Wallin P. Celestial cycles. Astronomical concepts of Regeneration in the Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts. Uppsala: Dept. of Archaeology and Ancient History, 2002 (Uppsala Series in Egyptology, 1).

Tags: Ancient Egypt, Alexandra V. Mironova, Articles, Festivals

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