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The Opet
Festival is also called the ‘Beautiful Feast of Opet’ and it was
a very important festival in Theba of the ancient Egypt. Meaning
the ‘secret chamber’, ‘Opet’ was referring to the private rooms
of the Amun`s sanctuary. The festival was in fact an anniversary
of Kingly Ka when special rituals were taken to re-confirm the
king’s ruling and also to regenerate the divine kingship. At the
Opet Festival a procession took place where the Amun`s Barque
was going from the sanctuary to the Luxor Temple's sanctuary,
which was situated at one mile away to the South. This big
spectacle was happening in the Akhet` s second mouth (the
Inundation), and that’s why it was associated with the fertility
that comes from the soil’s rich black and also wit the flood
season. During the reign of Hatshepsut, some wab-priests were
caring the barque on their shoulders the whole trip. In the New
Kingdom period, soldiers, drummers, priests, singers, the king’s
chariots, musicians, dancers and dignitaries were accompanying
the procession. All the way from the river to the temple was
lined with the drink and the food for the offerings. When the
sacred statues were in Luxor, they were put o shrines inside the
temple. The offerings to Amun-Ra from the King as well as the
coronation rites` ritual repetition were some of the religious
rites of the Opet Festival. Amenhotep III`s temple in Luxor has
great colonnade whose walls are engraved with beautiful scenes
from the festival offering us most of the information about the
festival. Today, the boat procession is practiced in different
way: in every year is a festival called the Saints Festival
where the boat is brought from the Abu-el-Haggag Mosque to the
Luxor`s streets. |
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