Happy Spring Egypt!
While many of us here at AW wave goodbye to the cold months of winter and open our per's to the warmth and beauty of Spring, the ancient Egyptian would be entering their Harvest Season, and with that, there would be many different festivals and ritual celebrations. God's such as Re, Osiris, Isis, Heru, Bast and many more were worshipped with offerings such as goose, wine, and incense.
There was also the Harvest Festival and that of what we now call the Spring Equinox, and lest we forget the Feast of the Beautiful Reunion in which Hathor departed her temple in Dendera and headed south for the city of Edfu where she would hook up with the barge of Horus, then their images would be enshrined in his temple for two weeks, after which they would be taken to the temple roof to greet Re. On her journey to Edfu, Hathor would stop over and visit the temple of Mut and Anukis.
Spring Fest 2006
While our Egyptian forefather's were busy planning their harvest festivals, our AW counterparts have been equally as busy planning for Spring Fest 2006. Egypt along with Rome, Celtia and the America's will be hosting this years Spring Fest, and goodness there is a lot of creative juices flowing! So far our brilliant community has come up with ideas for a wine tasting tour, in which people would be treated to a barge tour down the Nile to various vineyards; there is a battle of the Gods in which the god of each hosting world would battle about who gave a better gift to the world with their brew, ie, wine, beer etc; and there is even talk of trading spaces, where let's say Egypt would remake a hood to their liking and vice versa. But, that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, there are plenty of ideas flying around and the beauty of it all is, that, everyone, from novice to citizen, patron to scribe are welcome to voice their ideas, suggestions, or offer of help. Spring Fest is scheduled for April 20-23, the Egyptian festivities are set for April 21, 2006.
You can post your thoughts at the
Global Planning thread or Egypt's
Festival Event Planning thread.
Breaking News
On February 26, 2006 archaeologists announced they found an ancient temple to the sun under an outdoor market in Cairo. Once a part of ancient Heliopolis, the site proved to be the largest temple built by Ramesses II ever found. Although excavations of the limestone temple are in their infancy many discoveries have been made, among them, storage chambers, a kiln for firing amulets and a seated statue of Ramesses II dressed in the priestly leopard skin. The full article can be read
National Geographic
Archaeology News contributed by
Sankhkare Thutmose
As you may recall back in November AW Egypt posted a heart-breaking
news story of the world renown Petrie Museum and its struggle to survive. I am happy to report that with Heritage Lottery Fund assistance, the University College of London (UCL) will be housing the entire Petrie Collection on three entire floors of its new building, The Panopticon, scheduled for completion in 2008.
Currently, only 10% of the Petrie's 80,000 artifacts are available for public viewing — and the conditions in which they are displayed are entirely unsuitable for preserving them. When the new museum opens, for the first time ever the entire collection will be on display in a climate-controlled space built specifically for the purpose. AW Egypt wants to express its thanks to any and all Ancientworlds members who wrote or contributed to this worthy cause.
See the
Petrie Museum website and the link
The Petrie Museum > Planning the New Museum or visit
UCL's Panopticon Project site for more details.
Fun Facts: Here's some ancient Egyptian fun facts I picked up and thought I'd share with all of you!
Cat's could be trained by their masters to hunt birds
When a cat died the family shaved off their eyebrows as a sign of mournng.
Egyptian's thought it was good luck to enter the house left foot first.
If a home caught fire, cats were saved before humans.
