associated with the lunar CALENDAR. The seventh and
23rd days had similar significance each month. The festi-
val of the first day was a celebration of a new moon. Such
festivals and the first day were both called pese djentiu.
The most common name for a festival was heb,taken
from the hieroglyph for an alabaster bowl.
Festivals were designed to commemorate certain spe-
cific events in the daily lives of the people as well, particu-
larly agriculturally oriented events. The Festival of the
DJEDPillar, for example, depicted growth and the move-
ment of the sap in the trees as part of rebirth. In two sepa-
rate times of the year the Festival of Wepet or
Wepet-renpet, the New Year, was celebrated. Other festi-
vals honored the NILE, and on those occasions elaborate
shrines were floated onto the river, with flowers and
hymns saluting the nurturer of all life in the land. In the
fall, the death and resurrection of OSIRISwas staged at ABY-
DOS, and the Festival of the Sowing and Planting followed.
The purpose of most of the festivals was to allow the
people to behold the gods with their own eyes and to
make mythic traditions assume material reality. Particular
images of the gods, sometimes carried in portable
shrines, were taken out of the temple sanctuaries and car-
ried through the streets or sailed on the Nile. STATIONS OF
THE GODSwere erected throughout the various cities in
order to provide stages for the processions. ORACLESwere
contacted during these celebrations, as the images of the
deities moved in certain directions to indicate negative or
positive responses to the questions posed by the faithful.
One of the major Osirian festivals displayed a golden
ox clad in a coat of fine black linen. The sacred animal
was exhibited to the people during the season of the
falling Nile, a time in which the Egyptians symbolically
mourned the coming death of Osiris, a sign that the
growing season was ending. When the river rose again,
rituals were conducted on the banks of the Nile to greet
Osiris’s return. The priests used precious spices and
incense to honor the god in his rejuvenated form.
The Beautiful Feast of the Valley, held in honor of the
god AMUN, was staged in THEBESfor the dead and cele-
brated with processions of the barks of the gods, as well
as music and flowers. The feast of HATHOR, celebrated in
DENDEREH, was a time of pleasure and intoxication, in
keeping with the goddess’s cult. The feast of the goddess
ISISand the ceremonies honoring BASTETat BUBASTISwere
also times of revelry and intoxication. Another Theban
celebration was held on the nineteenth of Paophi, the
feast of OPET, during the Ramessid Period (1307–1070
B.C.E.). The feast lasted 24 days and honored AMUNand
other deities of the territory. In the New Kingdom Period
(1550–1070 B.C.E.), some 60 annual feasts were enjoyed
in Thebes, some lasting weeks. The Feast of the Beautiful
Meeting was held at EDFUat the New Moon in the third
month of summer. Statues of the gods HORUSand Hathor
were placed in a temple shrine and stayed there until the
full moon.
The festivals honoring Isis were also distinguished by
elaborate decorations, including a temporary shrine built
out of tamarisk and reeds, with floral bouquets and
charms fashioned out of lilies. The HARRIS PAPYRUS
also attests to the fact that the tens of thousands attend-
ing the Isis celebrations were given beer, wine, oils, fruits,
meats, fowls, geese, and waterbirds, as well as salt and
vegetables.
These ceremonies served as manifestations of the
divine in human existence, and as such they wove a pat-
tern of life for the Egyptian people. The festivals associ-
ated with the river itself date back to primitive times and
remained popular throughout the nation’s history. At the
first cataract there were many shrines constructed to
show devotion to the great waterway. The people deco-
rated such shrines with linens, fruits, flowers, and golden
insignias.
The PALERMO STONEand other pharaonic records list
festivals in honor of deities no longer known, and in
honor of the nation’s unification. The HEB-SEDcelebra-
tions of the rulers, usually marking the 30th year of the
reign, remained a vital festival throughout Egypt’s history.
Calendars of festivals adorned the walls of the temples at
Abydos, Dendereh, Edfu, MEDINET HABU, and elsewhere
in the Nile Valley.“First Occasion” A termused in ancient Egypt to des-
ignate the primeval times involved in cosmological tradi-
tions. Such times were called pat, paut,or paut-taui.The
First Occasion denoted the appearance of the god RÉon
earth, commemorating the emergence of the deity in the
PRIMEVAL MOUND. Other deities had their own First Occa-
sions, explaining their roles as primal beings in the cre-
ative phases of human existence.“First of the Westerners” See OSIRIS.First Prophet of Amun See PRIESTS.“First Under the King” This was an Egyptian court
title, denoting a particular rank and the right to rule a
certain district in the ruler’s name. In Upper Egypt the
senior officials were also called MAGNATES OF THE SOUTH-
ERN TEN. This affirmed their hereditary or acquired rights
as an elite group of governors and judges. Most areas of
Egypt had courts of law, treasuries, and land offices for
settling boundary disputes after the inundations, conser-
vation bureaus for irrigation and dike control, scribes,
militias, and storage facilities for harvest. Tax assessors
were normally attached to the storage offices, which were
temple-operated in many provinces. The governors of the
NOMESand the judges of these regional courts bore the
titles of privilege and rank and reported directly to the
VIZIERand to the royal treasurer in the capital. In some138 “First Occasion”