Sokar festival

Sokar festival in hieroglyphics
	Overview of the Saqqara necropolis

The Sokar festival was one of the oldest ancient Egyptian feasts of the dead and is attested to as early as early dynastic times . With Sokar as the god of the dead of Memphis , it represented the most important festival of the dead in the Saqqara necropolis for the kings of the Old Kingdom , especially from the 3rd dynasty onwards .

Sokar festival

Early to the Old Kingdom

In the royal annals of the 1st dynasty , the Sokar festival was always connected with the founding dates of Memphite tombs for king gods. It was not until the beginning of the 2nd dynasty that it was celebrated as a small sed festival in the Old Kingdom every six years since the coronation. The king appeared on the occasion with the lower Egyptian crown. The fifth Sokar festival took place as part of the Sed festival .

New Kingdom up to Greco-Roman times

With the beginning of the New Kingdom , the Memphite Sokar festival was upgraded to a nationwide annual festival of the dead, equating to the Theban Valley festival . The celebrations of the Sokar festival, which began on 26 Achet IV at dawn , are documented in several festival calendar entries :

"On the 25th Achet IV, on this day of the onion planting, on the night of the goddess festival and when it gets light on the morning of the 26th Achet IV, when the festival of Sokar is celebrated in its annual festival."

- Festival rites in the tomb of Cha-bechenet (TT2)

The Sokar festival ended on 30 Akhet IV with the symbolic construction of the Djed pillar , the king with the help of the respective priests at dawn just before sunrise began with the first rays of the first Peret I finished. The background was the resurrection of the god Sokar and the associated mythological equation with the king, who was to receive further strength through this ceremony for his further years of reign.

In the Greco-Roman times at the latest , the “ festival of the hacked earth ” replaced the celebrations of Sokar as part of the Choiak Isis rites .

literature

Jan Assmann : Death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt. Special edition. Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-49707-1 .
Siegfried Schott : Altägyptische Festdaten (= Academy of Sciences and Literature. Treatises of the Humanities and Social Sciences Class. (AM-GS). 1950, Volume 10, ISSN 0002-2977 ). Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences and Literature and others, Mainz and others 1950.

Individual evidence

^ Siegfried Schott: Ancient Egyptian festival dates . Mainz et al. 1950, pp. 56-57.
↑ Jan Assmann: Death and Beyond in Ancient Egypt . Munich 2003, pp. 312-313.
^ Siegfried Schott: Ancient Egyptian festival dates . Mainz et al. 1950, pp. 91-92.
↑ Maria Carmela Betrò: Sacred Signs. 580 Egyptian hieroglyphics. The whole world of the pharaohs becomes understandable and alive. Marix, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-937715-33-9 , p. 209.

[1] Siegfried Schott: Ancient Egyptian festival dates . Mainz et al. 1950, pp. 56-57.

[2] Jan Assmann: Death and Beyond in Ancient Egypt . Munich 2003, pp. 312-313.

[3] Siegfried Schott: Ancient Egyptian festival dates . Mainz et al. 1950, pp. 91-92.

[4] Maria Carmela Betrò: Sacred Signs. 580 Egyptian hieroglyphics. The whole world of the pharaohs becomes understandable and alive. Marix, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-937715-33-9 , p. 209.