The Divine Calendar of Ancient Egypt

New Year Festivities. Welcome to a new series detailing the Egyptians' religious year, the major events and the gods they celebrated. Month number one was called "Tekh," and it heralded several important rituals. There were festivals of the Nile Flood (Hapi), festivals of the blessed dead (Wagy-and-Thoth), and the beginning of a multi-month re-enactment of the legends of the god Osiris. The Egyptians got up to all kinds of shenanigans...

Select Bibliography:

Katherine Eaton, “Monthly Lunar Festivals in the Mortuary Realm,” 2011.

Belmonte, J. A., & Lull, J. (2023). The Calendar of Ancient Egypt: A Gift of the Nile. In Astronomy of Ancient Egypt (pp. 307–376).

Depuydt, L. (1997). Civil calendar and lunar calendar in ancient Egypt. Peeters.

Draco, M. (2001). The Egyptian book of days: The calendar of ancient Egypt.

Sabban, S. el- (2000). Temple festival calendars of ancient Egypt.

Epigraphic Survey. (1934). Medinet Habu, Volume III. The Calendar, the “Slaughterhouse,” and Minor Records of Ramses III. The University of Chicago.

Fukaya, M. (2019). The Festivals of Opet, the Valley, and the New Year: Their Socio-Religious Functions. Archaeopress.

Parker, R. A. (1950). The Calendars of ancient Egypt.

Rose, L. E. (1999). Sun, moon, and Sothis: A study of calendars and calendar reforms in ancient Egypt.

Shaw, I., & Nicholson, P. (2008). The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt (Revised).

Spalinger, A. J. (2001). Calendars. In D. Redford (Ed.), Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (Vol. 1, pp. 224--227).

UCL Egyptology. (n.d.). Festivals in the ancient Egyptian calendar. Retrieved January 4, 2026, from https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/ideology/festivaldates.html

Winlock, H. E. (1940). The Origin of the Ancient Egyptian Calendar. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 83(3), 447–464.

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