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Zagmuk
Zagmuk ( ), which literally means "beginning of the year", is an ancient Mesopotamian festival celebrating the New Year. The feast fell in March or April, the beginning of the Mesopotamian year, and lasted about 12 days. According to the Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer in the second edition of his study "The Golden Bough" (iii. 181, 182.), the date of the festivity of the beardless one was "the first day of the first month, which in the most ancient Persian calendar corresponds to March, so that the date of the ceremony agrees with that of the Babylonian New Year Festival of Zakmuk". It celebrates the triumph of Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon, over the forces of Chaos, symbolized in later times by Tiamat. The battle between Marduk and Chaos lasts 12 days, as does the festival of Zagmuk. In Uruk the festival was associated with the god An, the Sumerian god of the night sky. Both are essentially equivalent in all respects to the Akkadian "Akitu" festival. In som ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akitu
Akitu or Akitum () () is a spring festival and New Year's celebration, held on the first day of the Assyrian and Babylonian Nisan in ancient Mesopotamia and in Assyrian communities around the world, to celebrate the sowing of barley. Akitu originates from the Sumerian spring New Year festival of Zagmuk. Babylonian Akitu The Babylonian festival traditionally started on 4 Nissan, the first month of the year, as a celebration of the sowing of barley. All the people in the city would celebrate, including the ''awilu'' (upper class), ''muskena'' (middle class), ''wardu'' (lower class), High Priest, and the King. First to Third Day The priest of Ésagila (Marduk's house) would recite sad prayers with the other priests and the people would answer with equally sad prayers which expressed humanity's fear of the unknown. This fear of the unknown explains why the high priest would head to the Ésagila every day asking for Marduk's forgiveness, begging him to protect Babylon, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feast Of Wine
The Feast of Wine is a Jewish festival prescribed in the Q11 Qumran Temple Scroll, a document found among the Dead Sea Scrolls that describes an idealized temple and its regulations. It seems to have evaded notice of the composers of the Tanakh, hence it was unknown until the 90s Qumran discoveries. They also discovered a Feast of New Oil. The festival celebrates the new wine on the third day of the fifth month (Av), fifty days after the festival of the first fruits of grain. On this day, the peoples offer new wine to God "''a third from the new wine of each of the 12 tribes"'' following abstinence from old wine. Reeves sees the festival as coincident with an old way of reckoning the first day of the first month. Mood or manner Jubilant.11QT XXI 8–9 "one is exhorted to celbrate this festival in a state of rejoicing." Excerpt There's a Noah story, expounding on his vine aspect, known from its allusions in the Tanakh after the Flood story. And in the seventh week, in its fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Resurrection
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions involving the same person or deity returning to another body. The disappearance of a body is another similar but distinct belief in some religions. With the advent of written records, the earliest known recurrent theme of resurrection was in Egyptian and Canaanite religions, which had cults of dying-and-rising gods such as Osiris and Baal. Ancient Greek religion generally emphasised immortality, but in the mythos, a number of individuals were made physically immortal as they were resurrected from the dead. The universal resurrection of the dead at the end of the world is a standard eschatological belief in the Abrahamic religions. As a religious concept, resurrection is used in two distinct respects: # a belief in the ''individual resurrections'' of individual souls that is current and ongoing (e.g., Christian idealism, realized e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Semitic Festivals
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BCAD 500, ending with the expansion of Islam in late antiquity. The three-age system periodises ancient history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, with recorded history generally considered to begin with the Bronze Age. The start and end of the three ages vary between world regions. In many regions the Bronze Age is generally considered to begin a few centuries prior to 3000 BC, while the end of the Iron Age varies from the early first millennium BC in some regions to the late first millennium AD in others. During the time period of ancient history, the world population was exponentially increasing due to the Neolithic Revolution, which was in full progr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesopotamian Religion
Ancient Mesopotamian religion encompasses the Religion, religious beliefs (concerning the gods, Ancient near eastern cosmology, creation and the cosmos, the origin of man, and so forth) and practices of the civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, particularly Sumer, Akkadian Empire, Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia between circa 6000 BC and 500 AD. The religious development of Mesopotamia and Mesopotamian culture in general, especially in the south, were not particularly influenced by the movements of the various peoples into and throughout the general area of West Asia. Rather, Mesopotamian religion was a consistent and coherent tradition, which adapted to the internal needs of its adherents over millennia of development. The earliest undercurrents of Mesopotamian religious thought are believed to have developed in Mesopotamia in the 6th millennium BC, coinciding with when the region began to be permanently settled with urban centres. The earliest evidence of Mesopotamian religion dat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babylonia
Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as an Akkadian-populated but Amorites, Amorite-ruled state . During the reign of Hammurabi and afterwards, Babylonia was retrospectively called "the country of Akkad" ( in Akkadian), a deliberate archaism in reference to the previous glory of the Akkadian Empire. It was often involved in rivalry with the older ethno-linguistically related state of Assyria in the north of Mesopotamia and Elam to the east in Ancient Iran. Babylonia briefly became the major power in the region after Hammurabi (floruit, fl. –1752 BC middle chronology, or –1654 BC, short chronology timeline, short chronology) created a short-lived empire, succeeding the earlier Akkadian Empire, Third Dynasty of Ur, and Old Assyrian Empire. The Babylonian Empire rapidly fell apar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Semitic Religions
Ancient Semitic religion encompasses the polytheistic religions of the Semitic peoples from the ancient Near East and Northeast Africa. Since the term ''Semitic'' represents a rough category when referring to cultures, as opposed to languages, the definitive bounds of the term "ancient Semitic religion" are only approximate but exclude the religions of "non-Semitic" speakers of the region such as Egyptians, Elamites, Hittites, Hurrians, Mitanni, Urartians, Luwians, Minoans, Greeks, Phrygians, Lydians, Persians, Medes, Philistines and Parthians. Semitic traditions and their pantheons fall into regional categories: Canaanite religions of the Levant (including the henotheistic ancient Hebrew religion of the Israelites, Judeans and Samaritans, as well as the religions of the Amorites, Phoenicians, Moabites, Edomites, Ammonites and Suteans); the Sumerian-inspired Assyro-Babylonian religion of Mesopotamia; the Phoenician Canaanite religion of Carthage; Nabataean religion; Eblait ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ugaritic Vintage Rites
KTU 1.41 or the Ugaritic Vintage Rites (CAT 1.87 COS 1.95) describe an extensive Ugaritic ritual. It may have been a new year's event. Twice-attested, it was likely canon. It's something of a new moon, New Year occasion like the Hebrew Feast of Wine.§Auth Baruch Levine The "Lady of the temples" refers to the goddess, but as written it could also entail respect for the human priestess of her house. Lyrics 1 In the month of Rišn 2 On to the new moon, cutting the grape cluster 3 To Il - šlmm offerings 4 On the thirteenth, the pure king bathes himself 5 On the fourteenth: First of the tribute 6 And two small animals for the Lady of the temples, 7 Birds for the staff of gods 1 b yrh . riš yn . b ym . hdt] 2 šmtr . tkl . il . šlmm 3 b tltt 'šrt yrths . mlk . brr 4 b arb't 'šrt . riš . argmn 5 w tn šm . l b'lt . bhtm . 'srm . l inš 6 ilm . wšdd . ilš š . ilhm . mlk 7 ytb . brrbrr adj m pure, purified, clean cf Hb br, brwr br(r) n m "tin" w mhy x w qra 8 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nowruz
Nowruz (, , () , () , () , () , Kurdish language, Kurdish: () , () , () , () , , , , () , , ) is the Iranian or Persian New Year. Historically, it has been observed by Iranian peoples, but is now celebrated by many ethnicities worldwide. It is a festival based on the March equinox, Northern Hemisphere spring equinox, which marks the first day of a new year on the Iranian calendars and the currently used Solar Hijri calendar; it usually coincides with a date between 19 March and 22 March on the Gregorian calendar. The roots of Nowruz lie in Zoroastrianism, and it has been celebrated by many peoples across West Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Black Sea Basin, the Balkans, and South Asia for over 3,000 years. In the modern era, while it is observed as a Secularism, secular holiday by most celebrants, Nowruz remains a holy day for Zoroastrians, Baháʼís, and Isma'ilism, Ismaʿili Shia Muslims. For the Northern Hemisphere, Nowruz marks the beg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ki (goddess)
Ki (Sumerian: ) was the earth goddess in Sumerian religion, chief consort of the sky god An. In some legends, Ki and An were brother and sister, being the offspring of Anshar ("Sky Pivot") and Kishar ("Earth Pivot"), earlier personifications of the heavens and earth. By her consort Anu (also known as Anunna), Ki gave birth to Anunnaki; the most prominent of these deities being Enlil, god of the air. According to legends, the heavens and earth were once inseparable until Enlil was born; Enlil cleaved the heavens and earth in two. An carried away the heavens. Ki, in company with Enlil, took the Earth. Ki marries her son, Enlil, and from this union all the plant and animal life on Earth is produced. Some authorities question whether Ki was regarded as a deity since there is no evidence of a cult and the name appears only in a limited number of Sumerian creation texts. Samuel Noah Kramer identifies Ki with the Sumerian mother goddess Ninhursag and claims that they were originally th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hieros Gamos
''Hieros gamos'', (from and 'marriage') or hierogamy (, 'holy marriage') is a sacred marriage that takes place between gods, especially when enacted in a symbolic ritual where human participants represent the deities. The notion of ''hieros gamos'' does not always presuppose literal sexual intercourse in ritual, but is also used in purely symbolic or mythological contexts, notably in alchemy and hence in Jungian psychology. ''Hieros gamos'' is described as the prototype of fertility rituals. Ancient Near East Sacred sexual intercourse is thought to have been common in the Ancient Near East as a form of "Sacred Marriage" or hieros gamos between the kings of a Sumerian city-state and the High Priestesses of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love, fertility and warfare. Along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers there were many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna. The temple of Eanna, meaning "house of heaven" in Uruk was the greatest of these. The temple housed Nadītu, pries ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
