Socio-religious functions of three Theban festivals in the New Kingdom : the festivals of Opet, the Valley, and the New Year
In addition to temple rituals performed for the god by the king, festivals incorporated a broader domain, where a wider public had access to the divine. The participants in feasts ranged from the royal, officials and priests to the non-elite and the dead. Theoretically and ideologically, individuals would have received fruits of the divine power through the king by taking part in celebrations to variable extent. This functioned a vehicle for the god and the king to maintain their authoritative credibility and, by extension, the world order. The circulation of the divine force formed a different appearance at each festival, such as material supplies, promotions, and juridical decrees. These divine conveyances would have more or less met peopleâs social and religious needs. By embracing modality, periodicity, and publicness, festivals provided participants and audiences with a public setting and a formal means, whereby they were able to seek their identity as part of society. This may or may not have been relevant to personal piety, allegiance, responsibilities, and goodness, but public celebrations at least brought the kingâs subjects together to common grounds for official beliefs and social decorum. In
Fukaya, Masashi
History of the ancient world ; Egyptology ; ancient Egypt ; religion ; festival ; Thebes
Socio-religious functions of three Theban festivals in the New Kingdom : the festivals of Opet, the Valley, and the New Year. In addition to temple rituals performed for the god by the king, festivals incorporated a broader domain, where a wider public had access to the divine. The participants in feasts ranged from the royal, officials and priests to the non-elite and the dead. Theoretically and ideologically, individuals would have received fruits of the divine power through the king by taking part in celebrations to variable extent. This functioned a vehicle for the god and the king to maintain their authoritative credibility and, by extension, the world order. The circulation of the divine force formed a different appearance at each festival, such as material supplies, promotions, and juridical decrees. These divine conveyances would have more or less met peopleâs social and religious needs. By embracing modality, periodicity, and publicness, festivals provided participants and audiences with a public setting and a formal means, whereby they were able to seek their identity as part of society. This may or may not have been relevant to personal piety, allegiance, responsibilities, and goodness, but public celebrations at least brought the kingâs subjects together to common grounds for official beliefs and social decorum. In
socio_religious function theban festival new_kingdom festival valley new year addition temple ritual perform god king festival incorporate broad domain wide public access divine participant feast range royal official priest non_elite dead theoretically ideologically individual would receive fruit divine power king take_part celebration variable extent function vehicle god king maintain authoritative credibility extension world order circulation divine force form different appearance festival material supply promotion juridical decree divine would less met people social_religious need embrace modality festival provide participant audience public set formal mean whereby able seek identity part society may_may relevant personal piety allegiance responsibility goodness public celebration least brought king subject together common_ground official beliefs social decorum