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I've been busy the past few days so this is a little late but several days ago (March 19) was the Spring Equinox which was traditionally celebrated by many cultures around the world. The Persians called it Nowruz (New Day) which is their New Year's Day.
In ancient Egypt the Spring Equinox was called Shemu meaning 'harvest' (not to be confused for the month of the same name) and was also known by longer titles like 'Renovation of Heaven' and 'Coming forth of the Great Ones from the House of Ra'. I'm still trying to find information on the meaning of these titles but it seems to have something to do with the souls of the deceased kings which are the stars in the sky and may have some astronomical themes.
There was an obvious solar theme that can be measured by position of monuments like the Great Sphinx.
This phenomenon happens only twice a year, during the spring in March and the fall equinox in September, according to the ministry.
During the equinox, Earth's axis doesn't point toward or away from the sun, meaning that the Northern and Southern hemispheres receive equal amounts of the sun's light. In other words, the day and the night are equal in length.
Shemu has been documented as a sacred day in Egypt since the 3rd Dynasty but survived by being Christianized into a holiday celebrated on the Monday after Easter. The holiday survives today under the Arabic name Sham el Nessim meaning 'smelling the breeze' and making it one of the longest surviving holidays in the world (4,500 years old).
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When it comes to other Spring Equinox holidays, I've already mentioned the Persian Nowruz but there are others that were historically significant but not known about today.
In Mesopotamia there was the Zagmuk festival. The name comes from the Sumerian Zagmu meaning 'head of the year', which marked the creation and ordering of the world by the gods or a god. The festival itself while starting on the equinox lasted 12 days. Zagmuk has largely been replaced by the Babylonian Akitu festival which took place well after the equinox in the the 1st day of the month of Nisan, which interestingly was was also the original New Year's day of the ancient Israelites. Speaking of which, the modern Jewish holiday of Purim which starts this evening, takes place in the 13th day of the month of Adar which may very well be a remnant of the Zagmuk festival since it is only several days after the equinox.
In ancient Greece their spring equinox festival was the Anthesphoria meaning 'flowering' which commemorated the time in which the goddess Persephone leaves the Underworld to return to the land of the living and reunite with her mother Demeter. The festival was also called kalos irthate meaning 'welcome back'. It was a three day festival and the opposite of the Thesmophoria in which Persephone returned to the Underworld. The Anthesphoria was also celebrated in Italy introduced by Greek colonists.
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I wonder what other African cultures did during the spring equinox? I believe it would have been the beginning of the rainy season in many areas north of the Equator, since summer in the tropical latitudes tends to be when most of the rains fall. Of course, south of the Equator, the seasons would be reversed, with autumn having just started in South Africa.
posted
^ The problem is that the closer one gets to the equator the less difference there is in terms of the sun's alignment in terms of equinox or even solstice. The differences are more observable the farther one gets away from the equator. In fact it's only in the subtropical zones that one can start to see the differences in sun alignment. But you are correct that the seasons are flipped in the southern hemisphere so while we are experiencing a spring equinox in the northern globe away from the equator, the southern globe away from the equator experiences an autumnal equinox, and summer in the north is winter in the south etc. So I don't know too much about equinox celebrations in equatorial regions. I assume that people in those regions rely on other astronomical signs for their seasons since their seasonal changes are less obvious.
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The feast day is preceded by three days of fasting known as the Fast of Esther and then on the feast days not only is there feasting, but also excessive drinking, merrymaking, and handing out of gifts, especially sweet treats like the triangular shaped 'haman' cookies, and even masquerades which make the holiday seem most like Halloween than anything else. Although the story in which this holiday is based is found in the bible, Purim like Khanaka are holidays that have not been officially sanctioned by God but are essentially man-made holidays supposedly commemorating God's people-- the Jews.
However it can't be helped that there are many features about the holiday which seem to hold more connections with pagan themes than anything biblical beginning with the very name of the holiday itself.
On the Origins of Purim and Its Assyrian Name In the book of Esther, the name for the holiday Purim derives from Haman’s pūr (פּוּר, “lot”) to determine what day to attack the Jews. The name Purim predates the story of Haman’s lot, and may originate in a forgotten Assyrian calendrical celebration, when the new year was named with a pūru. --Dr.Amitai Baruchi-Unna
Thus Purim is known as the 'Feast of Lots'.
Why is the holiday called Purim? According to the Megillah, the holiday gets its name because the villain of the story, Haman, chose the date to attack the Jews based on a lot (3:7, 9:24), called a pur, which gives the holiday its name (9:26).
This explanation is strange, since the pur or lot seems to be a tangential element in the story. The main point is that Haman appointed a day during which the Jews should be killed; which day and how it was chosen would not seem to matter much. Why would the holiday be named based on this story element?[1]
The War in Chapter 9 The book of Esther is set in the early Persian Period, and was likely written during the late Persian Period. Although its author seems to be quite familiar with the Achaemenid court and its customs, the book of Esther is almost certainly not a historical account of the early years of Xerxes’ rule. It includes many fantastic twists and turns, and other literary markers[2]that typify historical fiction than historiography.[3]
The ninth chapter of the Megillah is a little different. It is not a fast paced, character-driven narrative, but a lengthy and repetitive description of a war between Jews and their enemies. This might suggest that the chapter did not originate as an organic part of the Esther and Mordechai story but may be a hyperbolic telling of a historical pogrom against diaspora Jews in Achaemenid Persia, which the Jews won.[4] If this is correct, this incident would be the only evidence for hostility directed against diaspora Jews in the pre-Hellenistic world, and thus, might explain why such an incident stood out and merited a holiday.[5]
As the battle is said to have occurred on the 13th of Adar, which extended into the 14th in the city of Shushan (Susa), the 14th and 15th of Adar are to be celebrated as a festival called Purim. But this theory is problematic, or at least incomplete, as it leaves the name of the holiday unexplained.
Note that the names Esther and Mordechai are the Hebrew names of the Babylonian Ishtar and Maredach i.e. Venus and Jupiter.
Also recall my point about the Sumerian and later Babylonian festival of Zagmuk which took place on the Spring Equinox and lasted 12 days, with each day commemorating some rite.
Carey A. Moore in her book Esther (2007) wrote in the chapter, “The Non-Jewish Origins of Purim,” Esther's canonical status may have been opposed by those Jews who saw the book as a defense for a Jewish festival which, as its very name suggests (*the pûr [that is, the lot]", iii 7; see also ix 26), was non-Jewish in origin. Certainly modern scholars have felt the explanation for Purim's name in ix 26 to be strained and unconvincing. Moreover, the ‘secular" character of the feast suggests a pagan origin, that is, no prayers or sacrifices are specified, but drinking to the point of excess is permitted in the Talmud, Megilla 7b… pûrim is a hebraized form of a Babylonian word...Efforts to identify Purim with an earlier Jewish or Greek festival have been neither common nor convincing, and ever since the 1890s, when Heinrich Zimmern and Peter Jensen equated Mordecai and Esther with the Babylonian gods Marduk and Ishtar, and Haman and Vashti with the Elamite gods Humman and Mashti, a Babylonian origin for Purim has been popular. Though scholars like Jensen, Zimmem, Hugo Winckler, Bruno Meissner and others have each picked a different Babylonian myth or festival as the prototype for Purim, namely, the Gilgamesh Epic, the Babylonian Creation Story, the Tammuz-Ishtar Myth, and the Zagmuk Feast, respectively, they all agreed in seeing Esther as a historicized myth or ritual. More recently, however, a Persian origin for Purim has been gaining support among scholars. --(pages 46-49)
^ The last sentence is interesting considering the story of Purim took place in Persia.
The History of Purim: There are many theories as to how this holiday developed ...Another theory starts from the fact that both the ancient Greek version of the Bible (the Septuagint) and the historian Josephus call the festival not Purim but “Furdaia,” which is contended to be a distortion of the Old Persian “Farwadigan,” a feast held toward the end of the month of March. The fact is, however, that the Feast of Farwadigan lasted at least five days and was primarily a commemoration of the dead.
posted
Happy Easter everybody, and Happy Sham El-Nessim to all Egyptians which officially begins tomorrow. I just realize that Sham El-Nessim is the 12th day after the vernal equinox so I'm wondering if the Egyptians had a celebration similar to the Sumerian Zagmuk festival.
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I keep forgetting that the Coptic Calendar like the Julian Calendar of the Eastern Orthodox Church is about a month behind the Gregorian Calendar we use in the West and that Coptic Easter is May 5th this year. So the actual Sham El-Nessim will be May 6th.
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posted
For the sake of data space I might as well post this here...
I was too busy with work and social activities early this week for me to post this but last Monday (April 9) was not only the day of the solar eclipse but that evening until the next evening was the 1st day of the month of Nisan in the Hebrew Calendar which is the holiday of Rosh Khodashim meaning 'Head of the Months' and was actually the original Jewish New Year's Day corresponding with the Babylonian holiday of Akitu. Rosh Khodashim is based on the following biblical verse Exodus 12: 1, And God spoke to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ‘This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.’
Unfortunately, this holiday seems to be all but forgotten except among Orthodox circles of Judaism whereas the Rosh Ha Shanna is more popular.
The First of Nisan, The Forgotten Jewish New Year The Great Exodus of Egypt: On Rosh Chodesh (the first of the month of Nisan), beni Yisrael (the children of Israel) heard the nes (miracle) that they were going to be redeemed on the night of the 15th, later in that very month. We hold this evening to remember the miracles and the hesed (kindness) that Hashem (God) does for His nation. “In Nisan we were redeemed in the past, and in Nisan we are destined to be redeemed again.” (a midrashic quote (Exodus Rabbah 15:2) asserting that just as the Exodus from Egypt took place in Nisan so too will the ultimate messianic redemption)
The celebration of the first of Nisan as the beginning of the new year is rooted both in Biblical and Talmudic sources. Exodus 12:1-2 states that Nisan is the first month in the intercalation of the new year and the Mishnah in Tractate Rosh Hashanah 1:1 describes the First of Nisan as one of the four beginnings of the Jewish New Year:
There are four new years. On the first of Nisan is the new year for kings and for festivals. On the first of Elul is the new year for the tithe of cattle. … On the first of Tishrei is the new year for years, for release and jubilee years, for plantation and for [tithe of] vegetables…. On the first of Shevat is the new year for trees…
Indeed, the ancient Israelites like many peoples who lived in subtropics and higher latitudes tend to divide the year into a light half and dark half with the start of one half serving as the start of the whole year. For example the Celts had Samhain (Halloween) for the dark half and Beltaine (May Day) for the light half with the former being the New Year's Day. I've learned not too long ago that Mesopotamians began their year in the light half during while the Canaanites and other Levantine groups did so in the dark half. The theory is that as the Israelites settled and acclimated to their Canaanite environment they later made the first day of Tishrei called Shabbat Ha Khodasim (Seventh of the Months) into Rosh Ha Shanah (Head of the Year) similar to their Canaanite neighbors. By the way, the original shabbat day that Hebrews rested on was the seventh day of every lunar month was not a weekly sabbath originally. Since Tishrei was the seventh month of the year it was considered the holiest of the month with the most holidays. The seventh day of Tishrei known as Ta'anit Tzaddikim (Fast of the Righteous) was originally more significant than the 10th day Yom Kippur.
But getting back to Rosh Khodashim, the holiday has its greatest likeness to the Akitu which unlike the former was a festival that lasted 12 days similar to the Zagmuk festival. Also, just as kings of Babylonia and Assyria began their regnal years in the Akitu, so too did Israelite kings begin their regnal years in Rosh Khodashim. But the holiday mainly marked the reunification of the 12 Tribes of Israel as a people (in Egypt) just before the holiday of Pesach (Passover) from the 15th-22nd day of Nisan. Interestingly, the month of Nisan is symbolized by the astrological symbol of T'leh (Aries) the ram which was the animal sacrificed for Passover.
Lastly in regards to Egypt, I know that Rosh Khodashim in the Coptic Calendar is celebrated as the day that Aaron who served as messenger for this brother Moses, left the court of the Pharaoh for the last time. So far I found no holiday in the ancient Egyptian calendar that lined up with that day at least in the solar calendar, unless anyone can find a source saying otherwise. I just find it fascinating that this day for the Israelites began in Egypt.
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This Evening is the beginning of the true Shabbat of the first month of Nisan and I can't help but notice this evening was the first major assault on Israel by Iran.
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