In 2024, archaeologists uncovered a scene on the ceiling of the Temple of Khnum in Upper Egypt that may depict a mythological representation of the New Year when the star Sirius rises. According to Live Science, the discovery sheds new light on the ancient Egyptian celebration of Wepet Renpet, or the Opening of the Year, a festival that was central to their culture and calendar.
Wepet Renpet was intrinsically linked to the heliacal rising of Sirius, which heralded the summer solstice and the annual flooding of the Nile River. This inundation was crucial for irrigating farmland, allowing crops to grow and ensuring the prosperity of the civilization. As noted by Live Science, the Egyptian calendar, created about 4,800 years ago, marked Wepet Renpet around June 21, coinciding with these natural events.
However, the date of Wepet Renpet was not fixed. The ancient Egyptian calendar consisted of 365 days without a leap year, causing the festival to “wander across the climatic seasons,” explained Juan Antonio Belmonte, an expert cited by CNN Greece. This lack of synchronization with the solar year meant that over time, the festival occurred at different times of the year.
During the Roman occupation of Egypt from the mid-1st to mid-3rd centuries CE, the Temple of Khnum’s inscribed calendar reveals that Wepet Renpet was celebrated three times a year. Live Science reports that Leo Depuydt, a professor of Egyptology, interpreted the three celebrations as marking the first day of the Egyptian calendar year, the birthday of the Roman emperor, and the heliacal rising of Sirius.
Festivities for Wepet Renpet often took place near the Pyramids of Giza. Texts from temples at Giza and Saqqara indicate that these locations were sites for feasts and celebrations during the New Year festival, according to Live Science. The celebrations included both the worship of deities and the remembrance of the dead, reflecting the Egyptians’ deep connection to both the divine and their ancestors.
One of the customs of Wepet Renpet was bringing deity statues out of the temples to be rejuvenated by the sun’s rays. “Statues depicting the deities were brought outside into the sunlight to be rejuvenated by the sun’s rays,” described Simon Connor, an archaeologist at the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, in his book Ancient Egyptian Statues: Their Many Lives and Deaths, as reported by Tiền Phong.
The festival also featured traditions that resonate with modern customs. Families and friends exchanged gifts to convey blessings for the year ahead. Among these gifts were the new year flasks, lentoid vessels typically made of faience or glazed ceramic. “The most famous object type relating to the New Year is the new year flask,” noted John Baines, a professor emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Oxford. These flasks were for liquids and had a small capacity, perhaps suitable for scented oils rather than drinks.
“Ask the gods Montu and Amun-Re to grant Amenhotep a Happy New Year,” reads the inscription on a flask displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as reported by Tiền Phong. Created for a priest named Amenhotep, this artifact exemplifies the personal and religious significance of gift-giving during the festival.
Ancient tomb inscriptions and scenes depict feasts during Wepet Renpet, featuring foods such as ducks, geese, and dried fish. These festivities were not only a time for communal celebration but also an expression of hopes for prosperity in the coming year. According to Live Science, the New Year’s Eve celebrations included banquets and parties, emphasizing the importance of social gatherings in ancient Egyptian culture.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq
This article was originally published at www.jpost.com
