Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Pharaohs’ Feasts ... By: Dr. Zahi Hawass


Wed 15 Apr 2020 | 01:33 PM
Ahmad El-Assasy

I did not find any people in the world celebrating feasts such as the Pharaohs ... Celebrating was multiple and varied among different occasions and holidays. One of them was for celebrating the memories of victories over enemies, and famous war fields, such as the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt and glorious battles that the Pharaohs fought like Tuthmosis III and his famous battle « Megiddo », whose war plans are still being taught in military academies as the first to develop war arts and techniques.

Also, the Pharaohs were celebrating the anniversary of the unity upon which their state was built, after uniting northern Egypt with its south in a single political entity.

There are also religious festivals, and this made Herodotus, also known as "Father of History," reminds us that the feasts do never end in the land of Egypt; the feast may not be but days ahead of another, and once the celebration ends on a religious occasion in a city, another begins in the city next door. These feasts were either to celebrate religious myths such as the legend of Isis and Osiris, or occasions related to Gods of big cities and feasts of memorials for the founding of the temples.

One of the most famous of those feasts was the one for the pine marriage between Hathour, goddess of beauty and love, and Horus, god of Edfu city.

At a specific time each year, the priests of Horus carried the statue of God placed on its holy boat and sailed across the Nile heading north to visit Hathour at its temple in Dandara.

There, the celebrations continue for more than ten days, and Horus remains in the hospitality of his wife, Hathour, inside her temple, and plays of pine marriage take place between the priests of both Horus and Hathour.

During the celebrations, the people consume a huge amount of alcohol drinks, which was specially made every year for the occasion. Flesh was also distributed among the priests and city residents rejoicing at this holiday.

Because Egypt is an agricultural country since its earliest times, it has placed importance for the holidays associated with agriculture and farmers.

Every year, the Egyptians were watching the arrival of the flood waters, which for them is the most important occasion that invites celebration, and the harvest season was the season of joy, in which celebrations were held in all parts of Egypt, and it was a good occasion for bands, singers and dancers to move from one village to another and perform the musical celebrations.

Those celebrations were sponsored by the rich rulers, and they included establishing public eating tables, when the most delicious foods were cooked, and children were also having their share of joy.

One of the most beautiful feasts of the Pharaohs was the celebration of construction, as the day when their large projects end, was a feast day for everyone who worked on them. When the pyramid was finished, the day was celebrated as a feast in which the king celebrated with the Egyptians the occasion, and placed the gold-plated pyramid above the summit of the structure to announce the end of the building project.