Calendar Entry #7: Feast of Goddesses

We continue our journey through the Cauldrons Calendar feast/festival/holidays - here we have another Ancient Egyptian based celebration. 

Naos, Isis Temple, Philae Island, Egypt - Rémih

The Feast of Goddesses is also known as the Feast of the Netjerts (Goddesses) in Their Temples. A heightened energy goddess day this celebrates every aspect of the feminine in reverence and gratitude.  While I haven't found anything specific about what you did on this day, I would guess it may have been something to do with the Netjerts feasting in their own temples... at a quick guess. <:-)

There were daily rituals held in the temples where the Netjer(t)s were fed and attended to.  This was done in an inner sanctuary or naos of the temple.  While the temple workers prepared the food, it was a purified Pharaoh or High Priest who opened the naos and tended to the Netjer(t).

The food that was served before the Netjer(t) was taken away when the Netjer(t) was thought to have satisfied himself/herself, which (s)he did not consume in a material sense of the word, but on an esoteric level.  It was believed that the Netjer(t) consumed only the spiritual essence of the meal, which allowed the food to be distributed to others, passing first to the other statues in the temple, then to local funerary chapels for the sustenance of the dead, and finally to the priests to physically eat.  This was called the reversion of offerings.

When there was a festival or feast, these daily rituals were set aside for the other festival observances.  Though many of the festival's interactions with the Netjer(t) were carried out by the priests alone, the food at a feast would have been much more substantial than for daily ritual and it is likely that rather than just dividing the food amongst the priests, the other festival attendees would probably have participated in the reversion of offerings.