Kiosk on the roof of the Temple of Dendera where New Year's rites were performed

One of the most important ceremonies carried out at the Temple of Dendera and at all the other temples in Kemet, was the "Opening of the Year" on New Year's Day.  The purpose of this ritual, which ideally took place during the rising of the Nile, was to renew the powers that regenerated Egypt. The central event was the union of the statue of the goddess with the sun disk, and at Dendera Het-Hert's statue would be carried to the roof of the temple and placed in the kiosk there, to be united with the life-giving rays of the sun. A similar ritual took place in Edfu with the icon of Heru.

References

Photo of kiosk of the Temple of Dendera, in Dieter Arnold's Temples of the Last Pharaohs, New York, Oxford University Press, c. 1999, p. 214.

[ Up ] [ Opening of the Year ] [ Festival of Intoxication ] [ Opet Festival ] [ Festival of Het-Hert ] [ Festival of Het-Hert's Giving Birth ] [ Beautiful Feast of the Valley ] [ Festival of the Beautiful Reunion ]

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