Feeling the Breeze Day celebrations
Feeling the Breeze is a holiday invented by the Egyptians 5 thousand years ago.. The ancients believed that it was the beginning of time and the beginning of creation.. and going out to parks with fish from the city of Esna in Luxor is the most prominent ritual of celebrating it.
As soon as an annual celebration or event passes in Egypt, its history and the secret of its beginning quickly come to our minds, which often goes back to the ancient Egyptians who wrote history and bequeathed to us their popular legacies and annual celebrations in the various seasons of the year. Today, the Egyptian people celebrate the Sham El Nessim holiday celebrations, which dates back to... Also in Pharaonic history, 5 thousand years ago, it was called “Shammu” at that time, and in Coptic it was called “Shom Ensem.” It is a festival held annually in the spring, in which all Egyptians celebrate the arrival of spring by visiting parks, coloring eggs, and eating fesikh.
Below we refute the date of the beginning of the Sham El Nessim holidays since ancient Pharaonic history, as the beginning of the celebration of “Sham El Nessim” goes back approximately five thousand years, that is, about the year (2700 BC), specifically to the end of the Pharaonic Third Dynasty, and the people celebrate it. Egyptian culture until now, and this holiday was known in the city of Heliopolis “On”. It is a holiday that symbolizes the resurrection of life to the ancient Egyptians. The ancient Egyptians believed that that day was the beginning of time, or the beginning of the creation of the world as they imagined, and the name was modified for this holiday. Throughout the different eras, the word “breeze” was added to it because this season is associated with the moderate weather, the pleasant breeze, and the accompanying celebration of this holiday, such as going out to gardens and parks and enjoying the beauty of nature.
The ancient Egyptians celebrated that day in a large official celebration in what is known as the “spring solstice,” which is the day on which night and day are equal, at the time of the sun’s arrival in the sign of Aries. They would gather in front of the northern facade of the pyramid before sunset to witness the sunset, and the disk of the sun would appear as it tilted toward... Sunset is gradually approaching the top of the pyramid, until it appears to onlookers as if he is sitting on top of the pyramid, and at that moment something strange happens, as the sun’s rays penetrate the top of the pyramid, so the facade of the pyramid appears before the eyes of the viewers to have split into two parts, and this strange phenomenon still occurs with the onset of spring. On the twenty-first of March every year, in the last minutes of six o’clock in the evening, as a result of the sun’s rays falling at a certain angle on the southern facade of the pyramid, its dim rays reveal the dividing line between the two triangles of the facade that exchange light and shadows, making it appear as if it were two halves.
The Spring Festival among the ancient Egyptians had special rituals that were very similar to our current rituals. They would go out in the Spring Festival, which changes features between the seasons, due to its connection with the sun and the river, and they would eat salted fish, onions, eggs, and chickpeas, as dried and salted fish were the most important aspects of celebrating this holiday. The ancient Egyptians used to bring it from the city of Esna in southern Egypt, which was famous at the time for making and offering dried fish as votives to the gods inside the temples. Until the dried fish became a symbol of the city in the Ptolemaic era, “Latypos,” meaning the city of the white shell.
The Egyptians knew types of fish that they were keen to draw on the walls of their tombs, such as mullet, perch, and tilapia. They also knew roe since the era of the Pyramids, to the point that during one of the holidays, they would eat fried fish in front of the doors of their homes at the same time.
The archaeologist, Al-Tayeb Gharib, chief inspector of the Karnak Temple, says that one of the most prominent rituals that the faithful of the Pharaohs performed during the holidays took place in the city of Memphis, which was circumambulating a sacred building, in addition to offering sacrifices that accompanied the celebration. There was a song commemorating a celebration in Thebes that said, “What The Temple of Amun has the greatest joy in the new year when the victims are slaughtered, when Amun accepts his new things and his bulls are slaughtered by the hundreds.
Al-Tayeb Gharib added to “The Seventh Day” that during their festivals, the Egyptian Pharaohs had the priests carry the statue of the deity and circumambulate it in a solemn procession in which everyone participated, and in which clowns, singers, and dancers performed their arts, and theatrical performances were held that depicted certain myths, and the people, not the priests, were the ones who celebrated. On the feasts of good and friendly deities.
The chief inspector of the Karnak Temple confirmed that all of these aspects are still observed by the Egyptians until now, and it was among the important holidays of the Pharaohs, as they set its date with the spring solstice, which is the day on which night and day are equal at the time of the sun’s arrival in Aries, and it has remained linked to the sun until today. And the river, and celebrations of it among them were held on the banks of the Nile, in the middle of gardens and open squares, and among flowers, which have a great place in their souls, as the columns of the Pharaonic temples in Luxor abound and are decorated with a “lotus” style that mimics bouquets of flower buds. The Egyptians depicted themselves on the walls of their tombs and temples as they They inhale the flowers with reverence, which suggests the magic of flowers and their status in them.
Al-Tayeb Gharib went on to say that the ancient Egyptian used to spend the most joyful, brightest, and most popular time in life in the spring season, that season in which all things change to burst with vitality, hope, and beauty, and in which women were keen to wear transparent clothes, pay attention to styling their hair, and use excessive perfumes to show off their charms. This is how it was. The return of spring, which is characterized by the blooming of flowers, will always be met with joy and welcome from the Egyptian public and their privates throughout the ages. They would carry with them certain types of foods that they eat on that day, such as colored eggs, fesikh (salted fish), lettuce, onions, and malana (green chickpeas). They are Egyptian foods of a special nature that were linked to the significance of celebrating that day - according to the Pharaohs - as it represents to them of creation, fertility, and life.
Eggs symbolize the creation of life from inanimate objects, and some of the Memphis papyrus depicted the god “Ptah” - the god of creation among the Pharaohs - sitting on the ground in the shape of an egg that he formed from inanimate objects. Therefore, eating eggs - on this occasion - seems like one of the sacred rituals of the people. The ancient Egyptians used to engrave their invitations and wishes for the new year on eggs, and put the eggs in baskets of palm fronds that they hung on the balconies of houses or on the branches of trees, so that they would receive the blessings of God’s light when it rose and fulfill their wishes. As for fesikh, it appeared among the traditional foods in celebrating the holiday in the era of The Fifth Dynasty, with the beginning of interest in sanctifying the Nile, and the ancient Egyptians showed great ingenuity in preserving fish, drying them, and making fesikh. Herodotus - the Greek historian who visited Egypt in the fifth century BC and wrote about it - mentioned that they used to eat salted fish on their feasts.
Likewise, onions were among the foods that the ancient Egyptians were keen to eat on that occasion. To them, they were associated with the will to live, conquering death, and overcoming disease. They would hang onions in homes and on balconies, and they would also hang them around their necks and place them under their pillows. This custom is still widespread. Among many Egyptians even today, lettuce was one of the favorite plants of that day. It has been known since the era of the Fourth Dynasty, and was called in the hieroglyph "Heb." The ancient Egyptians considered it a sacred plant, so they engraved its image under the feet of their god of reproduction.
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