Celebration in the house of eternity

The celebration in the house of eternity was an important ritual in the cult of the dead in ancient Egypt . The Egyptians used the term "house of eternity" to refer to the tomb that the tomb owner had built during his lifetime for his "life to be repeated in the afterlife ". The celebration in the House of Eternity was based on ancient Egyptian mythology , according to which the deceased should be remembered at special annual festivals out of concern for the food of the dead and their souls .

Celebration in the house of eternity

Dead sacrifice

In the course of ancient Egyptian history, an extensive cult of the dead sacrifice developed over the millennia , which regulated the relationship between the living and the deceased. The associated spells, transfigurations , prayers , solemn acts of the priesthood and family, false doors , statues , sacrificial tablets and grave goods are unique in their scope and duration compared to other religions .

The cult of the dead sacrifice already existed in the Old Kingdom . The main goal of providing the dead with food and drink there was to provide daily food for the deceased kings and gods. Sacrificial sayings and rituals have been preserved from the pyramids of the fifth and sixth dynasties , which served as the foundation of the later variants of the cult of the dead. In this context, the Wag and Thoth feasts probably originated as early as the Old Kingdom , with the roots of the festivals going back to the Thinite period with regard to the royal burials carried out in Abydos .

Later, the funerals of individual necropolises were added, where the deity of the respective city went out and visited the necropolis. This also included the pulling of the socar barque , which was celebrated throughout ancient Egypt in the further course of ancient Egyptian history. However, the valley festival that originated in the Middle Kingdom under Mentuhotep II was most popular .

Feast and celebration

There are already records from the Old Kingdom showing the grave lord with relatives and friends at the feast. Music and dance rounded off the festivity as a special component. With the beginning of the New Kingdom , a clear change in the old rites is noticeable, as the relaxation of traditional forms in the 18th Dynasty brought a new liveliness into the festivities.

Judgment of the Dead : Scene of the Weighing of the Heart ( British Museum )

In the reign of Thutmose III. There are also images that, in addition to depicting the burnt offerings, combine the “coming of the temple singers” and the “ bringing the bouquets ” festival . At the same time, the disappearance of some traditional rites can be noticed, such as the old transfigurations, which dealt with the ascension of the deceased as spirits of the dead as one of the central themes. The introduction of the Book of the Dead gave large parts of the population the opportunity to enter the Duat after death . This is probably why secularization came to the fore, combined with blessings for the grave lord still alive.

In the period that followed, the new development became visible in all funeral celebrations. The festivities during the reign of Amenhotep II represented the climax of the lively, informal festival rites. This informality led to overpainting in the graves from the time of Amenhotep II in the 19th dynasty . Girls who served the guests naked on grave representations now received clothes, as that era was retrospectively considered " offensive ". The painters also “defused” those scenes that showed lovely grace .

literature

Jan Assmann : Death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt. Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-49707-1 .
Siegfried Schott : The beautiful festival of the desert valley. Festive customs of a city of the dead (= Academy of Sciences and Literature. Treatises of the humanities and social sciences class. 1952, Volume 11, ISSN 0002-2977 ). Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz 1953.