formed in the temple. Such calendars were probably copied
from liturgical papyrus rolls kept in the temple archives. Dat-
ing to the Old Kingdom, the earliest known festival calen-
dar is inscribed on the walls of the Fift h Dynasty sun temple
of King Niuserre (ca. 2450 b.c.e.). Private tombs of the Old
Kingdom also included brief feast lists.
Temple calendars indicate that the Egyptians celebrated
annual festivals. Whether a festival lasted for one day or for
several days, each had a fi xed date within the Egyptian civic
calendar, occurring on the same day, or over the same period,
every year. Festival calendars also include brief accounts of
the major religious events celebrated within the confi nes of a
particular temple.
Wep Renpe t (New Year’s Day) was celebrated on the fi rst
day of the civic calendar (fi rst day of the fi rst month of the year,
or fi rst month of Akhet, day 1). Th is festival marked the New
Year and celebrated the notions of rejuvenation and rebirth.
Th e festival of Wagy was originally a lunar festival that
was celebrated on the 18th day of the fi rst month of the civic
calendar (fi rst month of Akhet, day 18). Th is festival was fu-
nerary in nature, but evidence for it comes from both ma-
jor cult centers and private tombs. From the Fourth Dynasty
(2575–2465 b.c.e.) onward, this festival is included in feast
lists inscribed in private tombs. Because the civic and lunar
dates for this festival did not always coincide, the Egyptians
eventually celebrated this festival on two separate occasions:
once on its fi rmly set date within the civic calendar and at
another time according to its actual lunar date.
Th e Opet festival, which was fi rst celebrated in the reign
of Hatshepsut of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1470 b.c.e.),
lasted up to 27 days during the Twentieth Dynasty (ca. 1196–
1070 b.c.e.). Th is New Kingdom festival took place in the sec-
ond month of the civic calendar. Th e Opet festival included
a procession during which the pharaoh-elect traveled to the
temple of Amun at Luxor, where he would receive emblems of
kingship from his divine father. During the course of this fes-
tival the pharaoh was identifi ed with Horus, the divine ruler
of the living, and was offi cially crowned as king of Egypt. Be-
cause of its importance in asserting the power and divinity
of the Egyptian king, this festival held special signifi cance in
royal ideology and was closely supervised by state offi cials.
Th e festival of the god Sokar, or Choiak, was celebrated
during the fourth month of the civic year. Th is ancient festi-
val was dedicated to the cult of Osiris, the divine ruler of the
aft erworld. Th is festival, which was included in Old Kingdom
private feast lists, linked Osiris both to the city of Memphis
and to the god Sokar. Originally celebrated over a period of
six days, this festival lasted for almost an entire month dur-
ing the Late Period (712–332 b.c.e.). Since the Egyptian civic
calendar comprised three seasons of four months each, the
feast of Sokar served as a celebratory conclusion to the fi rst
season of the year (Akhet, or Inundation). By day 26 of the
Sokar feast, Osiris was considered offi cially dead, and a pe-
riod of four days marked by intense sadness and mourning
followed.
Nehebkau was a festival celebrated on the fi rst day of the
fi ft h month. Similar to a New Year’s Day festival and occur-
ring just fi ve days aft er the festival of Sokar, this feast became
another occasion to celebrate rebirth. In the interim fi ve-day
period, the king, who was identifi ed with Osiris in his death,
was reborn as the living Horus. Because the concepts com-
memorated during this festival were very similar to those cel-
ebrated on the fi rst day of the civic year, this festival shared
many rituals with the Wep Renpet festival, the original New
Year Day’s celebration.
Th e festival of Min, the god of fertility, was celebrated
at the beginning of the harvest season (Shemu); the festival
of Min occurred in the ninth civic month. Th e date of this
predominately agricultural festival was set according to the
lunar calendar. During the course of this archaic festival, the
king would harvest the fi rst sheaf of grain and would ritually
act as the provider and sustainer of his people.
Th e Beautiful Feast of the Valley was enacted during the
10th month of the year. Dating to the Middle Kingdom (ca.
2040–1640 b.c.e.), this Th eban festival became very impor-
tant during the New Kingdom. A major part of celebrating
this festival involved a boat procession during which the stat-
ues of the divine Th eban triad Amun, Mut, and Khonsu were
ferried across the Nile to the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir
el-Bahri on the western bank of the Nile. Because the city of
the dead was also located on the western bank, this festival
became an occasion to visit the tombs of deceased family
members.
Because festival calendars are primarily preserved on
temple and tomb walls, it should come as no surprise that
the extant evidence is biased toward offi cial religious celebra-
tions, providing us with very little information on nonreli-
gious civic festivals. One very important noncultic festival
was a royal jubilee celebration, known as the Heb-Sed festi-
val. Celebrated throughout the Dynastic Period, the Heb-Sed
festival is fi rst mentioned on ivory tags dating to the reign
of King Den of the First Dynasty (ca. 2900 b.c.e.) and may
have originated in a predynastic tradition. During the course
of this celebration the king performed a series of physically
strenuous rituals, possibly to prove his virility. While in
theory the Heb-Sed was celebrated every 30 years, the evi-
dence suggests that Egyptian rulers may have held it more
frequently. Representations of the Heb-Sed festival are found
in the sun temple of Niuserre, in the tomb of Kheruef at Th e-
bes, in the temple of Amenhotep III at Soleb in Nubia, in the
temple of Akhenaten in East Karnak, in the Twenty-second
Dynasty (945–712 b.c.e.) temple of Osorkon II at Bubastic,
and from the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (664–525 b.c.e.).THE MIDDLE EAST
BY KAREN RADNER
In the ancient Near East there was no working week culmi-
nating in a fi xed Sabbath or Sunday to provide time for rest
and relaxation as well as worship. Instead, the course of daily464 festivals: The Middle East