Egyptain Festivals

An Egyptian festival was usually religious. Most of the festivals today are for holidays of in a small community. The local and kind of small festivals are my favorite. Some of the festivals in ancient Egypt were not religious. For example Ramsses III held a festival to celebrate a victory over the Libyans. Also festivals along with a feast to thank the gods for bringing the flood that year. Some of the most important festivals are the festival of Sokar, this festival honored the god Osiris. This festival was held in the fourth month of the Egyptian calender, it lasted for six days. I would like to have a festival about me lasting six days! Another important festival is the Sed festival. This festival was only celebrated when a Pharaoh held the throne for over thirty years! That's a long time! The religious festivals were held at a temple. They would often have children or older boys play the part of the god or goddesses. They were so organized that they had a calender of all the festivals and when they were celebrated.

Children and Their Free Time

Children in Egypt are not much different then children now. All of the children liked to play with their friends. Most of the children helped their parents farm when it was that time of season. Just like most children have chores. Well i don't have chores but most children do! When the children were not helping their parents with farming of something else they would often play wit their toys. Toys in Egypt were almost the same for example they had dolls and stuffed animals. They would use linen when they would stuff their toys. I think that they will use linen when ever they can! One difference about their toys were that their dolls were made of would and were kind of a stick figure. That doesn't sound so fun to me.....but that's all they had! The other things that children did for fun is sports. Now that's something i like. The only thing was that they didn't really have a name for their sports. Their sports consisted of running, jumping, throwing, and wresting. Those all sound fun except for wrestling I am not a fan of that. Some of their sports also had a religious meaning. Those sports were mostly for boys. Girls on the other hand would study dance and practice for upcoming parade. Girls in the parade would honor goddesses. These things that children do in their free time is not the same thing that all children in Egypt did. Other children were dedicated to working and helping their parents. That's not me I like to have fun!

The Game of Senet

This board game of Senet was not only for kids but the Pharaoh had his very on set. Since he had his own set his set was way nicer then a farmer might have. I wouldn't care if I had a nice set I would be glad to have something to do. The rules of Senet were pretty simple. You would have 4 rectangular, of the 4 sticks two of the sides would be rough and the other two smooth. The board that you would play on had 30 squares. Each of the squares stood for some advantage in the underworld like "beauty" or "power". The side of the game board was or usually a story written in hieroglyphics. Most of the "poor" peoples game board just was just made of plain, old fashion wood.

Egyptain Instrument

One of the most used instrument in Egypt was the 5 stringed harp. This harp was not the same as ours today. The harp they had back then only had 5 strings. So, I am just guessing the songs with the harp wouldn't be very different since you only have 5 strings. This harp was only one of the many instruments Egyptians used. The body of the harp was shaped like a boat. The bottom of the harp often has writing on the bottom of it. The writing usually told a different story on each harp. The back of the harp had a head with the crown of lower and upper Egypt. The weird part of the harp is the strings. The strings were made of animal guts! Now that's just weird. Each harp was a different length and size. Some of the harps are small and some are big. Last, at the top of some harps was a falcon head. This harp was very unique and every harp was different in a way.

An Egyptian Party

Even though Egyptians didn't have alot of stuff we have now they sure knew how to party!! There parties had things that we have now such as music and maybe dancing. We know that they had music at these parties but they had no way of writing it down. So we can only guess what it sounded like! I don't think its as good of music that we have now. Some of the instruments they used were the harp, flute, lute, lyre, drums, and rattles. The only thing that I thought was kind of different was that they had acrobats at their parties. I mean those must of been big parties to have acrobats! Everybody was able to have parties but as you can imagine the Pharaohs party was like huge! The only bad thing was that not every one was able to go. The farmers and people not as wealthy were not able to go. Think about what they were missing but who knows they could have fun parties too! Some things were not very good at these parties like some people drank so much that they would be carried home!! Now that's pretty sad and embarrassing. Now at our parties people eat with whoever they want but in the Egyptian party the host and hostess sat together and every one including the kids were separated into boys and girls. I like sitting with whoever I want so I don't think I would like the eating part of the Egyptian party!

What is the most played board game played in Egypt?

What are two of the toys that little kids in Egypt played with in their free time?

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