I’m attempting a Kemetic New Year celebration for the first time this year! I’ve been a devotee of Bast and Sekhmet for a while now, and I decided it’s finally time to really start doing holidays. Previously I had not done much by way of Kemetic holiday celebrations in large part because the calendar is pretty complicated – the new year is calculated starting from the first day the star Sirius can be seen in the pre-dawn twilight, ahead of the sunrise. That requires staring at a lot of star charts and comparing dates to find the first day… and then calculating how many days between Wep Ronpet and any given holiday in the calendar, and adding that many days to your calculated Wep Ronpet date… and honestly, it was bit overwhelming. But this year, I bit the bullet, and I’m doing Wep Ronpet. I’m using the date for DC even though I live a bit into Virginia – and that date is August 7th, at 5:42 am. That means that the five Epagomenal Days start on August 2nd, with the Birthday of Wesir (Osiris), followed by Heru-Wer (Horus the Elder), Set, Aset (Isis), and Nebhet (Nepthys) being the final birthday on August 6th. That evening I’m also planning on doing a red pot execration, similar to the one I described in a previous post. With any luck I will also rise early enough to see the star herself rise, ushering in the new year.
Although I will be camping with druidy friends for Lughnasadh for most of that week, I am setting up a follow-along for the Epagomenal Days and Wep Ronpet on my Kemetic tumblog, so check that out if you’re interested. I’ll also post a reflection once it’s all over.
I am very excited and I hope this will be the beginning of a year with many new holidays for me! (Especially if the Egyptian Daybook is actually released soon.) I have stuck a few into my calendar already: the Festival of Bast and Sekhmet (Nov 19), the Sailing of Bast, Sekhmet, and Anubis (Jan 3-5), and the Festival of Chewing Onions for Bast (Apr 16). I don’t know what I’ll be doing for all of them, yet, but I think Bast and Sekhmet have big plans for me this coming year.
