The Divine Calendar of Ancient Egypt

The History of Egypt Podcast

Dominic Perry

History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2017

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The
0:07.0	... Hello and welcome to a history of Egypt podcast mini episode, New Year's festivities.
0:35.0	Welcome back. How was your new year? I hope it went well, that you did
0:39.4	something you enjoyed, and that you took some time to reflect on what you achieved in 2016
0:44.3	and what you'd like to achieve in 2017. One thing I want to achieve is a more comprehensive
0:51.6	look at the Egyptian calendar and their year in a religious sense.
0:56.4	It's something I've touched on only briefly, because until this year I've been running through
1:01.6	time periods that don't leave a wealth of evidence on the subject. Well, now our sources are
1:07.9	beginning to multiply, and I feel I'm at a place in the story where I can tell you something meaningful.
1:14.3	So, for the next 12 months, I'm going to be releasing a new mini episode every month about the Egyptian religious year.
1:22.2	Festivals, dates, celebrations.
1:24.7	All that jazz.
1:43.0	Today's little episode takes a look at the all-important first month of the Egyptian New Year,
1:44.9	the month called Teh.
1:50.2	Sometimes it's called Thoth, or Thut, depending on the time period you're looking at,
1:55.6	or the source you're reading, but the ancient Egyptian term was Teck, which means drunkenness.
1:57.6	No explanation needed, I think.
2:02.4	This was a time of celebration, of natural revival, and of great solemnity in some parts of the country. It set the tone for the year to come, whether it would
2:08.7	be a time of plenty or a time to tighten the belts and focus on getting through. In an
2:14.6	agricultural subsistence economy, either one could come in any year. So the feasts and
2:21.3	festivals of the New Year were aimed a lot at ensuring that everything went smoothly. Before I begin,
2:28.4	a quick disclaimer. Many of the festivals that the Egyptians celebrated originated originated
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