Sed Festival: By: Nuradin Mohamud

Alabaster sculpture of an old pharaoh

1. the festival starts with some foundation rituals. The king and the goddess Seshat: 'stretching the cord' - a foundation ritual.

A feast known from the predynastic to the ptolemaic period,which centred around renewal of physical and magical powers of the ruling king. Sed-festival first was held in or around the king’s thirtieth year of the throne. Could be repeated every two years of three years after.

6. the people appear again in front of the king

2. the king visits building works and the census of cattle procession: the king appears for the first time in the Sed cloak, next to him appear the king's children.

3. procession: the king appears for the first time in the Sed cloak, next to him appear the king's children 4. ceremony in a building: the lion furniture procession for the rebirth and regeneration of the king

5. people from all parts of the country appear in front of the king On this fragment the king appears seated in a pavilion on a stepped platform. He wears a short cloak, characteristic for the sed festival, and holds the three-pronged 'flail', a key insignium of his office. There are traces of hieroglyphs in the pavilion with the name of the king. The hieroglyphs outside of the pavilion might belong to a longer inscription.

7. A Min processionMin

8. the king stops before the chapel of Wepwawet, where he puts ointment on the standard. He changes his cloak and in a ritual a run with the standard. The running seems to be the most important part of the festival. It often symbolised the whole festival

The sed festival court at the step pyramid

Beginning at the southern end of the western wall (the far end to the left of the entrance) there are two registers containing scenes of the first heb-sed (jubilee festival) of Amenhotep III, celebrated in Year 30, Day 27, of the second month of Shemu. Kheruef, as royal steward, must have played an important part in the organisation of the festival.

2. the king visits building works and the census of cattle Part of a scene known in Egyptology as the 'Lion furniture procession', in which this lion-legged bed or throne is borne with other items associated with the king

Going back to the southern end of the wall, the bottom register shows the celebrations of the heb-sed festival with two rows of female dancers and musicians. In the top row the girls are probably Libyans and they are performing graceful dances with their heads held low and their hair hanging forward over their faces. Curiously, I have seen very similar dances performed in modern Egyptian religious festivals. In front of the row of the dancers is a frolicking calf, a flying bird and a baboon.

The wall at the northern end of the portico displays scenes from another sed-festival, the third of Amenhotep III, this time dated to Year 37 of his reign. The king’s second heb-sed is not recorded here. Beginning at the far end of the wall there are two registers. The top register is not well- preserved, but depicted a group of eight princesses with sistra, in two rows. Texts stated that these were the daughters of the king. In front of this, in a scene again very damaged, Amenhotep III followed by his queen performs a ceremony of ‘Raising the Djed-Pillar’. This is a ritual usually performed during the feast of Khoiakh to represent the stability of the ruler, here it is associated with Ptah-Sokar-Osiris and performed on the morning of the sed festival.

Above the still standing obelisk of the second pair of Hatshepsut (height of m; Weight: 323 t); the somewhat darker color of the lower section indicates, up to which height the obelisks had been encased later by the restoration of the Hall of Wadjit initiated by Thutmosis III - up to this height the obelisks had been protected against bleaching sunbeams

This courtyard area was built for celebrating the sed festival, when after thirty years of rule the living pharaoh was expected to prove his continuing vigour by chasing the sacred bull around the courtyard and catching it by the tail. It is believed that Djoser chose to do this every three years rather than thirty. The corners of the buildings were (purportedly) made rounded for safety.

Statue showing typical robe for the sed