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 * Feast and festivals**

Feasts and festivals were important to the ancient Egyptians. It was a huge part of their entertainment and whether poor or rich all took part in the festival. Feasts were more common with welthier people than the poor.

**Festivals[[image:draft_lens3851072module25361742photo_1238855159Agriculture_Tomb_of_Nakht.jpg align="right" caption="Festival(Harvest) by google images"]]**
Festival meant enjoying the day off and visiting the temple. The egyptians were not really allowed to see the statue of the god. Therefore on festival days the statues were carried around the outside wall of the temple. All festivals were based on a lunar civil calendar.

**New Year's Day (Wen-renpet)**
This festival was to celebrate the first day of the year like we do today.This was the time when regeneration and rebirth likely took place.

The feast of Wagy was eleven days after the New Year's Day. It was later combined with the festival of Thoth that was eight day away. This festival was connected with mortuary rituals and could be celebrated individually, outside an official religious circle or at major temples
 * The Feast of Wagy**

The Opet festival is a yearly holiday that takes place during the Nile flooding. The people of ancient Egypt have no work load as the Nile was flooding, provifding them with fertile soil. This festival was to thank the Nile river and the god associated with it for providing them with fertile land. This festival was major at Thebes and was held on the second month of the calender. The duration of this importent event was twenty-seven days and with time became a very significant celebration. During the festival, Thebans and Egyptians were allowed to ask the god questions which should be able to be answered with a simpe yes or no. They used banges to say yes or no. If it dripped forward it was a yes, if it dripped back it was a no. Peope coud also put their questions in a temple for the god to answer. Priests would give the answers of the god from high windows or holowed statues.
 * The Opet Festival**

**The Festival of Sokar or Choiak[[image:festival1.jpg width="342" height="242" align="left" caption="Festivals by google images"]]**
This celebration was on the fourth month of the calender and was a competitior to the festival of Opet during the New Kingdom. The duration of this festiva was from about twenty-five to thirty days. The reason of this festival was the connection withthe underworld, Osiris, and the connection with the archaic powers of Memphis. This festival grew more important with the establishment of the Egyptian capital Memphis. During the last few days of this festival no agony and sadness was to be shown.

**The Rebirth Celebration of Nehebkau**
It is the rebirth of the god was later connected to the rebirth of the king as the living Horus.

**The Festival of the Fertility god Min**
This event was celebrated on the ninth month of the calendar. This festival shows a pharaoh's role as the son of god and he cuts the first sheaf of grain. This is the month when most mothers would want childbirth so that the god Min could help them when needed.

**Feast of the Valley**
This event was aso major in Thebes and was hed on the tenth month of the calendar. It became more important with the New Kingdom approaching. The feast began at the Karnak temple with the procession of the sun god Aun with his family on a boat flowing on the Nile. Sitrums were palyed by joyous peope along the way as it was believed to have soothed the gods and goddesses. With the journey continuing with this it finally ends at the necropolis filled with tomb chapeldwere the dead rests. This festival was for the dead and as all pharaohs are burried in a valley, it is called Feast of the Valley.

**Heb-Sed Festival**
This is a celebration of te thirty years of a pharaohs reign. It symbolised the regeneration to ensure long reign in a pharaoh's afterlife. The rituals are meant to bring back harmony between thepharaohand the universe.

Only weathy peope could afford to have a feast and enjoyed inviting friends over. There was plenty of food provided with an abundunce of wine. Scented cones were first given to the guests by servants to put on their head so that it slowly metedaway onto their wigs to give out a fragrant smell. The hosts would hire many people. Musicians were hired to pay many instruments for the feast as a form of entertainment. Dancers were hired to perform gymnastics and astounding stunt to astonish the guests. Storytellers were aso hired to amuse the guests and was often the first in the itenery. Food was all kinds of food available from roast ducks to sweet dishes. Guests sat around low tables of food, ate with their fingers and were provided water to wash their hand brought by servants.
 * Feasts **

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