Akhet - The Horizon

("... to cause his father Amun to appear in the Feast of the Valley.")

Of all the 60 festivals which were celebrated locally in the Waset (Thebes) area during the New Kingdom, there were two which brought the god out of his temple twice each year; the Opet Festival and the Beautiful Feast of the Valley. While the former was connected to the fertility symbolism of the rising Nile with Amun and his consort visiting his southern precinct at Luxor, the Feast of the Valley was a celebrated reunion between the living and the dead and the deities who watched over them, a so called 'rite of incorporation'. It probably began in the reign of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep in the Middle Kingdom and was celebrated in the second month of Shomu, in the harvest season before the flooding of the Nile.

Beautiful = 'Nfr'

The ancient Egyptian word 'nfr' means not only beautiful but has also connotation to wholeness, vitality, perfection. There are prayers carved in the Temple of Het-Hert at Dendera, made during festival times where people address the goddess asking for bodily health and vitality.

The Fundamental Belief

The Beautiful Feast of the Valley is believed to have been held originally in rememberance of the dead, but acquired through time and by annual repetition both importance and a regenerative aspect as well. Egyptian festivals were generally recognising the repetitive nature of things, like the kings´s ascendance to the Horus Throne, his jubilee, the repetition of the rising waters and thereby renewal of life, the birthday of the gods, etc. These repetitions, the so called 'Zep Tepi', manifested the Egyptian view on existence as being something eternal and continuing on the other side of this life. Anestors and deceased family members, the 'Blessed Dead', were observed, loved and even feared. Their benevolence and cooperation was sought out in festivals during which the borders between the living and the dead seemed to grow thin and links could be forged between the living on all levels of society, and the dead and the god (in the case of the Beautiful Feast of the Valley the god was Amun) by means of offerings, feasting and intoxication. The occasion was thus not only a social event, it centered around the fundamental core of belief both for the individual and society. This seems to be particularly true about the Beautiful Feast of the Valley. When the general consensus was that the deceased live on in a parallell life in the Afterworld, it must have brought quite a measure of comfort and trust to their families left behind.

The Festival Procession

Preparations for this festival meant gathering flowers for the making of boquets and garlands, which were to be worn and offered to the god as well as at the tombs of the deceased.

Early in the morning, the priests meticulously prepared the statue of Amun and placed it carefully in an enclosed shrine which was then carried on a ceremonial boat or bark. People singing, dancing and making music with sistra and tambourines met the procession as it emerged out of the temple and started on its path. From the beginning Amun made this journey alone, but as time passed, he was joined by his spouse Mut and their son, Khonsu. The whole triad of Waset were thus partaking in the festival, each enclosed in separate shrines.

Bark of Amun, relief, Karnak.

Starting out from Karnak, the shrines were carried in procession down to the river accompanied by a throng of people. They were set on board barges which were towed across the river to the western side. Here the gods in their shrines made visits to pharaoh´s mortuary temple (during Hatshepsut´s time Deir el-Bahri) and to the temples of other deities. Offerings and hymns were performed at each of these places. The whole procession then stopped at the necropolis where the concluding rituals for the deceased ancestors and family members would be performed .

Tombs of more wealthy people had shrines attached for the performing of rites for the dead. These were now entered, food and drink were set out, people prepared themselves for meeting with their deceased ancestor during an all night vigil. The particular wah garland made of petals from fresh flowers symbolizing regeneration was given to all participants, dead as well as living with the purupose to bring the deceased nearer to the living. A boisterous feasting began, much like a family reunion and in this case including also the deceased family members. Wine, beer, music, drumming, dancing brougth the participants to a level of extatic awareness and summoned the spirits (ka´s) of the ancestors. Feasting such as this made it possible to cross the border between the living and the dead in so called rites of incorporation.

This habit of feasting with the dead was not limited to the Feast of the Valley, but was practised at several lunar festivals (Beginning of the Month, Beginning of Second Half of the Month) and transgressional festivals like the Opening of the Year and the Five Extra [Epagomenal] Days). (It also has parallels in modern Egypt, see Winifred S. Blackman: The Fellahin of Upper Egypt, London 1927). The importance of ancestor veneration (the akhu), runs like a thread throughout all of ancient Egyptian history since earliest times and seems to find its peak in New Kingdom.