Cake Is Pharaonic Tradition, Ancient Egyptians are First People Celebrate Feasts

The ancient Egyptian calendar includes a number of feasts as the ancient Egyptians are the first people who celebrate feasts according to Herodotus, the well-known Greek historian.

He indicates ancient Greeks borrowed celebration of feasts from the Egyptians.

Feats in ancient Egypt were defined as Heaven feasts that include the solar and lunar calendar.

There are another group of feasts known as secular or mundane feasts that comprises official, local, religious, agricultural and funerary feasts.

He indicated that the most season of popular and religious feasts is the Flood Season ( known in ancient Egypt as Akht season).

During these feasts, hymns were cited and temples were decorated.

The ancient Egyptian used the word Hib to indicate the feast, so hib nefer means happy feast day.

Dates of feasts throughout the year were recorded on the walls of the temples or written off papyrus scrolls where they kept in libraries of the temples like the list of feasts kept in the library of the temple of Ramses III.

Herodotus indicated that making cake and pie, especially at the New Year.

This tradition transferred from the New Year to other feasts and become features of these feasts.

As time passes every feast has a special kind of cake.

Pies at first were decorated with inscriptions and spells.

Celebration the feast took a religious appearance in the Ancient Kingdom.

Festivals starts with slaying offerings and presenting to gods and distributing over the poor.

Some parts of the offerings were gifted to priests to distribute.

Over feasts the Egyptian went to gardens and pleasances and fields to enjoy the beauty of nature especially the five days of Nasi.

During the era of the Modern Kingdom in ancient Egypt, celebrating the new Year takes a secular feature as it was taken from the religious feasts to become a popular feast with special enjoyment.

The Egyptians celebrate the new year with making the cake which is a word borrowed from the ancient Egyptian Language.

Making cake which is the most important feature of Eid al Fitr is a tradition dated back the ancient Pharaonic ages.

Cake was also known as dicks because it resembles the disc of the sun which was sacred in ancient Egypt.

The sconces (discs) were decorated with straight lines that resemble the rays of the sun.

Women in ancient Egypt made cake to offer it to temples and their priests who guard the Pyramid of King Khufu especially the sunrays shine of the burial chamber inside his pyramid.

He pointed out that these inscriptions were recorded on the walls of tomb of Minister Rakhmeri in Luxor during the 18th Dynasty, which explains a beautiful model for making cakes.

These inscriptions show women bring pure honey and add it to butter and put it on the fire, then add some flour to it and mingle it over the fire until it becomes into a paste that can be formed to discs. He pointed out that there are some inscriptions that record those offerings which contained include bread, sconces, cakes and petite bread, which are now being made.to be a manifestation of the joy of the Egyptians about the coming of the feast, and it is also done.

The distribution of cake for the rest the soul of the deceased in ancient Egypt was recorded on the tomb of King Ramses III in Habu City.

Translated by Ahmed Moamar