Festivals in the ancient Egyptian calendar
Ancient Egyptian festivals centred on procession by land and river, and were celebrated on particular days or series of days in the official year. The official year (365 days) was just short of the solar year (the time the earth takes to go around the sun, 365 1/4 days); as a result, the official year gradually moved back, with the official 'winter' months and their festivals falling into the summer. There seems to be no attempt to move the festivals, even those relating to agricultural events in the solar year such as flood, or the low-river sowing season. Such fixed reference to the official year demonstrates the remarkable power of the centralised kingship, in determining the timing of festivals that would have been celebrated by large numbers across the country. The role of festivals in daily life is indicated by the names of months; these derive from names of festivals, often with a prefix 'Paen-' meaning 'the (festival/month) of', and were kept in use even after the conversion of Egypt to Christianity in the early centuries AD.
The evidence for festivals is uneven; there are more inscriptions recording funerary and royal festivals, and far more evidence from Thebes than from the rest of Egypt. One of the most important sources is the hieroglyphic inscription recording a great festival list in the temple for Ramesses III at Medinet Habu.
Hieroglyphic inscriptions on Old Kingdom tomb-chapel elements, particularly the architrave, include lists of important festivals with an emphasis on the beginning of the year, the late summer flood:
There are no manuscripts of the period with information on the procedures followed in any of these festivals during the Old Kingdom (about 2686-2181 BC) .
The following list gives the festivals noted by Siegfried Schott in his study of festival dates, in the order they occurred in the Egyptian year. Each month is introduced by its number in the sequence of 12 months in the Egyptian calendar, with the ancient Egyptian name of the month in an early New Kingdom list, the late New Kingdom month name, its early medieval equivalent in Coptic (Christian) Egypt, and the rough equivalent in the modern calendar in the ideal official year when it matched more or less the solar year (though the official year moved out of step with the solar year, as explained above). Each month had 30 days, and the festivals are listed in sequence; some festivals moved or grew over time, and others are known only from one period. Each year, five days were added to the 12 months of 30 days to bring the total to 365, as close as integrally possible to the 365 1/4 days of the solar year; each 'extra' day was celebrated as the birthday of a particular deity.
In this list after Schott, the great variations across time and place are overlooked in order to produce a linear calendar of festivals; in referring to each festival, the following questions should always be asked, even if the sources can rarely provide detailed answers:
In addition to the seasonal festivals, there would have been festivals specific to each reign, such as the accession day of the reigning king.
Tekh = Thoth = Coptic Thout (approximately August, ideally)
day 1 New Year - Opening of the Year - birthday of Ra-Horakhty (the sun-god)
day 15 offerings to Hapy and Amun to secure a good flood (known from Dynasty 19 rock inscriptions at Gebel el-Silsila)
day 17 eve of the Wag festival
day 18 Wag festival
day 19 Wag and Thoth festival, according to the great festival list in the temple for Ramesses III at Medinet Habu
day 20 Tekh (drunkenness)
day 22 Great Procession (of Osiris)
Menkhet = Panipet = Coptic Paopi (approximately September, ideally)
day 15 start of Ipet festival as 11-day festivities for Amun in Luxor, according to the festival list of Thutmose III at Elephantine
day 19 start of Ipet festival as 27-day festivities for Amun in Luxor, according to the record of good deeds of Ramesses III (Papyrus Harris I), and great festival list in the temple for Ramesses III at Medinet Habu
Note: the river procession and offerings at the Ipet festival are depicted on the walls of the great colonnade of the temple of Amun at Luxor
day 18 local Elephantine festival of Khnum and Anuqet, according to the festival list of Thutmose III at Elephantine
day 27 start of 2-day local festival of Mont, according to the late Middle Kingdom (about 2025-1700 BC) accounts papyrus Boulaq 18 (referring to it as 'festival of Mont'; this may be not an annual festival, but one ceremony, perhaps at the consecration of a shrine)
day 28 local Elephantine festival of Satet and Anuqet, according to the festival list of Thutmose III at Elephantine
day not specified: Menkhet ('Cloth') festival, according to late Middle Kingdom accounts papyrus listing singers and dancers UC 32191
Hathor = Coptic Athor (approximately October, ideally)
day 9 festival for Amun, according to the festival list of Thutmose III at Elephantine
day 30 local Elephantine festival of Anuqet, according to the festival list of Thutmose III at Elephantine
Nehebkau = Kaherka = Coptic Khoiak (approximately November, ideally)
day 1 festival for Hathor, according to the great festival list in the temple for Ramesses III at Medinet Habu
day 18 start of the Khoiak ceremonies: main events of this festival, centred on the Osiris myth, are
Shefbedet = Ta-aabet = Coptic Tobi (approximately December, ideally)
day 1 festival of Nehebkau (called the Beginning of Eternity in an inscription for king Sety I at Nauri)
day 20 sailing of Wadjyt, according to an inscription for king Thutmose III at the temple of Mut, Karnak
day 29 sailing of Bast, according to an inscription for king Thutmose III at the temple of Mut, Karnak
day 29 festival of Raising the Willow, according to the great festival list in the temple for Ramesses III at Medinet Habu
day 30 sailing of Shesmet, according to an inscription for king Thutmose III at the temple of Mut, Karnak
according to a late New Kingdom Turin papyrus, the festival is the sailing of Mut lady of Isheru
Rekehwer = (Paen)-mekhir = Coptic Mekhir (approximately January, ideally)
day 1 sailing of Anubis
day 30 key date in a festival spanning several days, identified sometimes as 'Amun-in-the-festival-of-raising-heaven', and in some sources the day of bringing branches of the ished-tree (sacred tree of the sun-god at Iunu) and culminating on the next day, the first of the next month, with the ceremony of filling the sacred eye in Iunu; this is the halfway point of the year, ideal 'midwinter'
Rekehnedjes = Paenamenhotep = Coptic Phamenoth (approximately February, ideally)
day 1 festival of Ptah (perhaps local to Thebes?), according to the journal for work on the king's tomb; day of return of the image of the deity in the festival 'Amun-in-the-festival-of-raising-heaven'
day 21 festival of king Amenhotep I in the valley (originally local to Thebes? month name indicates broader observation later?)
day 29 start (?) of 4-day festival of king Amenhotep I for the Deir el-Medina workforce
(Paen)renenutet = Coptic Pharmouthi (approximately March, ideally)
day 4 festival of Bast, also recorded as the day of chewing onions for Bast
day 5 appearance of Bast in her boat, according to a Dynasty 26 statue (Louvre A88)
day 25 harvest offering to Renenutet, according to a depiction in Theban Tomb-chapel 38
day 27 granary offering to Renenutet, according to a depiction in Theban tomb-chapel 48
(Paen)khons = Coptic Pakhon (approximately April, ideally)
day 1 festival of Renenutet, also identified as the birthday of Nepri (personification of grain)
day 10 adoration of Anubis
day 11 festival of Min, a 4-day festival at the New Moon according to the great festival list in the temple for Ramesses III at Medinet Habu
Khentkhety = Paeninet = Coptic Paoni (approximately May, ideally)
Festival of the Valley celebrated at the New Moon in this month; this was the greatest festival of the Theban necropolis, when the image of Amun of Karnak on the east bank at Thebes was brought to the temples for the cult of individual kings on the west bank - a distinctive feature of this festival was the presentation of great quantities of flowers - this would have been a time for each family to feast with their dead, and the architecture and decoration of tomb-chapels at Thebes reflect such festive banquets
Ipet-hemet = Ipip = Coptic Epip (approximately June, ideally)
day 15 offerings to Hapy and Amun to secure a good flood (known from Dynasty 19 rock inscriptions at Gebel el-Silsila)
day 30 eve of the Hathor festival at Thebes, according to stela for king Thutmose III, Cairo CG 34013
Wepet-renpet 'Opening of the Year' = Mesut-Ra 'birth of Ra' = Coptic Mesori (approximately July, ideally)
days 1-2 festival, occasion not specified, according to late New Kingdom ostracon Deir el-Medina 209, verso, line 4
day 2 Ipip festival, according to the journal for work on the king's tomb, Necropolis Journal pl.59, line 19
day 24 festival of Ptah (local?), according to a rough inscription on a Middle Kingdom pyramid
day 30 eve of start of year
day 1 birthday of Osiris
day 2 birthday of Horus
day 3 birthday of Seth
day 4 birthday of Isis
day 5 birthday of Nephthys
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