page_title: Lychnapsia
section_title: On the calendar
hierarchical_section_title: Lychnapsia / On the calendar
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Isis, schwarzer und weißer Marmor, römisch 1. Hälfte 2. Jh. n. Chr. (nach griechischem Vorbild des 4. Jh. v. Chr.), aus Neapel; Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Antikensammlung, Inv.-Nr. I 158.
context_page_description: In the Roman Empire, the Lychnapsia was a festival of lamps on August 12, widely regarded by scholars as having been held in honor of Isis. It was thus one of several official Roman holidays and observances that publicly linked the cult of Isis with Imperial cult. It is thought to be a Roman adaptation of Egyptian religious ceremonies celebrating the birthday of Isis. By the 4th century, Isiac cult was thoroughly integrated into traditional Roman religious practice, but evidence that Isis was honored by the Lychnapsia is indirect, and lychnapsia is a general word in Greek for festive lamp-lighting. In the 5th century, lychnapsia could be synonymous with lychnikon as a Christian liturgical office.
context_section_description: Numerous lamp festivals were celebrated in Egypt. The most important of these began during the five epagomenal days at the end of the year, following Mesore (Coptic Mesori), the twelfth and last month of the Egyptian calendar that corresponded roughly to the Roman month of Augustus. The Egyptian calendar divided a year of 360 days into 12 equal months of 30 days each, with the year-end insertion of five days sometimes called "lamp days" to synch with the solar year. The birthday of Isis was celebrated on the fourth epagomenal day.
  The 12th of August on the Julian calendar corresponds to the 19th of Mesore on the Alexandrian calendar. On or around the 18th of Mesore, the Egyptians held a Nile festival named variously as Wafa El-Nil, Jabr El-Khalig, or Fath El-Khalig ("The Marriage of the Nile" in European scholarship), a nocturnally illuminated celebration when a clay statue called the Bride of the Nile (Arousat El-Nil) was deposited in the river.
  The Calendar of Philocalus (354 AD) places the Roman Lychnapsia pridie Idus Augustas, the day before the Ides of August, a month when the Ides fell on the 13th. It began to be celebrated after the mid-1st century AD. Mommsen conjectured that it was introduced around 36–39 AD along with the longer Roman Isiac festival held October 28 through November 3. During this period, the fourth epagomenal day would have coincided with August 12 on the Roman calendar. According to this theory, the Lychnapsia would have been a Roman celebration of the dies natalis ("birthday") of Isis.
  The birthday of Horus also was celebrated with a lamp festival, according to a decree that marked the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC. A major festival of lights occurred for the rites of Osiris on the 22nd day of the month of Khoiak (December), when 365 lamps were lit.
caption: Romanized Isis (c. 100–150 AD, black and white marble)
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