page_title: Opet Festival
section_title: Importance of the Festival to society
hierarchical_section_title: Opet Festival / Importance of the Festival to society
context_page_description: The Opet Festival was an annual Ancient Egyptian Festival celebrated in Thebes, especially in the New Kingdom and later periods, during the second month of the season of Akhet, the flooding of the Nile. The festival was celebrated to promote the Fertility of Amun-Re and the Pharaoh, who was also believed to be the spiritual offspring of Amun-Re; the Son/Daughter of Amun-Re. John Darnell argues that “Opet began on II Akhet 15 under Thutmose III and lasted 11 days; by the beginning of the reign of Ramesses III, the festival stretched over 24 days”. The Festival included a ritual procession of the Barque of the cult statue of “Amun-Re, supreme god, his wife, Mut, and his son, Khons.”. This procession carried the statue for 2 km from Karnak Temple to “Luxor Temple, destination of the Opet Feast”. Once at the Luxor Temple, a ritual marriage ceremony between the Pharaoh and Amun-Re took place in the Birth room, spiritually linking them to ensure the Pharaoh’s fertility and reinstate the Pharaoh as the intermediary between the gods and Egypt.
context_section_description: New Kingdom Egyptian society depended on the generosity of the gods to ensure they received what they wanted. Because they lacked the scientific understanding to explain specific events, the Egyptians looked upon each natural event as a sign or intervention from specific gods, willing them to maintain the natural order of the universe, or the ma’at. In order to appease the gods, Egyptians routinely made offerings to the gods; through sacrifice, prayer, and festivals. Through this perceived symbiotic relationship, these celebrations of the divinity of the gods provided assurance to a historically suspicious society, allowing them to live their lives without fear of divine intervention. The Opet Festival re-established essential communication between the gods and Egyptian society through the re-birth ceremony in the Temple of Luxor’s birth room, which initiated the pharaoh as an intermediary for the gods by being re-born as the son of Amun-Re, “the rebirth of the son god” (Creasman, 2013). This rebirth promoted the fertility of the pharaoh, ensuring their right to rule was divine and consolidating their lineage. The Opet Festival also reinforced the fertility of the harvest, which fluctuated depending on the inundation of the Nile, and was therefore celebrated in the “second month of the Akhet season” (Darnell, 2010). It was not just the Pharaoh who was active during the festival, sailors and soldiers were the most prominent non-religious groups in the festival. They have been observed in the colonnade hall relief scenes, which demonstrated that a large number of civil and military official partook in the preparations and running of the Opet Festival. John Darnell emphasises the importance of the general population in executing the festival, “Ramesses II listed amongst those responsible for arranging the festival: members of the civil administration, provincial governors, border officials, heads of internal economic departments, officers of the commissariat, city officials, and upper ranks of the priesthood” (Darnell, 2010). Those who were not actively involved in the running of the festival were “able to observe from the riverbanks, and at least some may have had limited access to the forepart of the temple” (Darnell, 2010). The festival also provided jobs for wab and lector priests, who were on 3-month rotations. They recited spells and hymns among the general population on the riverbank to ensure that reverence was upheld.
caption: Amun, the king god in Ancient Egyptian mythology. The Opet Festival incorporated him to promote the pharaoh's fertility