Being Kemetic Orthodox, I have access to a pre-constructed calendar with an average of three holidays to choose from for any given day. If I have questions about our calendar, I have a whole community to ask: how do you celebrate this day? What is the history of this day? What is this day’s significance to you?
I have but one question of the calendar most days: where the hell are all the holidays for Ptah and Wepwawet? We know these were critical gods in Kemet, with one a major creator, the lord of the capital city and the other the opener of the way, a god of kings. Yet it seems information on their holidays is few and far between.
Anyone that has talked to me for more than two minutes about my Fathers knows that my adoration of Them runs deep. Not having holidays for them is something akin to a crime. Finding someone to adore Ptah with is difficult enough without that shared culture we find is festival days.
In addition, while I still live in an agricultural community fed by a river, our four seasons are vastly different from Kemet’s three seasons, and occur far out of sync. Our socio-political structure is different. Our cultures are not alike. My means as a broke college student with little physical community are different than the nobles and priests who had access to vast temple complexes. While the calendar my temple provides is an excellent basis, with many places to begin, I am beginning to create my own ideas for festivals for my gods and spirits.
Ptah has presented an idea for a cycle of holidays celebrating varieties of artisans. Originally, I planned to celebrate one art a month by trying my hand at the craft and becoming the patron of an artisan under the month’s umbrella. However, considering the time constraints of such a thing, I am considering making this a (Kemetic) seasonal process. Sculpture is definitely going to be one of the three, with baking, painting, and jewelry making also being under consideration.
Festivals for Wepwawet, I suspect, will be much harder to discover. Currently, I am toying with festivals of divination and community service, but I think that ideas will come with further research. The Ladies have their fair share of festivals as the Eyes of Ra, so I am not particularly worried about coming up with a festival calendar for Them (not when I have Shefyt to piggyback off for all things Bast).
As accountability for this project, I will try to have a working “Festival Calendar” posted for all of my gods at the beginning of each season. So expect one of those at the end of the month, when we move to the Harvest Season… right when California begins to plant.
(Oh, and check out this Kickstarter, aiming to make the Kemetic calendar accessible and customizable for all!)
Their Love Flows Like Wine 