By: Mrs. Margaret Ikladious: Treasures of Nowruz

Mrs. Margaret Ikladious

Treasures of Nowruz 

Written by: Mrs. Margaret Ikladious

Nowruz (Egyptian New Year) is the first day of the Egyptian new agricultural year.

The history of the celebration of this holiday dates back at least 12 thousand years, that is, since the Egyptians knew astronomy, through which the beginning of the year and the spring and autumn solstices were determined.

The celebration of Nowruz, which falls on the first of the month of Tut, corresponding to September 11, is considered a farewell to summer and the beginning of the month of autumn.

The sun begins to recede, and the weather gets cold, especially at night and dawn, which calls for winter clothes.

It is well known that the "Wbet Renbet" festival, which means "the opening of the year," is an official state holiday in ancient Egypt.

Which later became known as Nowruz and differed relatively from the original feast with time.

It came at the beginning of the annual season of the agricultural cycle, which is divided into three seasons: the flood season, the germination season, and the harvest season.

Each semester consisted of three months, according to the agricultural chapters known in the past, which were inherited by the Copts in Egypt, especially in Upper and Southern Egypt, and those who work in agriculture and agriculture until now.

And here we must stop at a significant observation, which is that the ancient Egyptians were waiting for the coming of this holiday, starting on June 11..!!

And here we must stop again when mentioning that date to know that the origin here and the reason for the difference in history was due to the way to monitor the silt turbidity in the Nile River, which came from the sources in the south and often appears at the end of June.!!

The process of observing this turbidity was called afar (The Fall of Isis's Tear), and that was due to the intensity of her weeping over her husband and beloved Osiris.

As for a reason for changing the Egyptian Agricultural New Year date from July 17 to September 11, the actual beginning of the Nile flood coincides with the emergence of the star group "Subbed."

 Sabbat is its ancient Egyptian name, known in Arabic as the Yamani poetic star.

It is known that the solar system revolves around the galaxy and takes 10,000 years.

Over time, the movement of the solar system led to the direction of the position of the Yemeni Sirius star and the change of the date of its appearance to September 11, and thus the date of the "Webt Rabbit" holiday, or what was later known as Nowruz Festival, was changed.

And it became the ancient Egyptian New Year's Day, which the Egyptians continued to celebrate as one of their most joyous holidays.

Over time, that feast had some Christian features due to the spread of Christianity in Egypt, even if the occasion was purely Egyptian..!!

We call the Nowruz festival by this name, as it is called the Nowruz festival, as it comes from the Coptic word nii'arwou (ni-yaru), meaning rivers.

Another opinion says that the Coptic word has its origin Nyaros, an abbreviation of the phrase Nyaru-azmo-aroo, which means "bless the waters of the rivers" (the feast of the blessing of the rivers).

This is because that time of the year is the date of the completion of the Nile flood season, which is the cause of life and blessing in Egypt and the beginning of the celebration..!!

And when the Greeks entered Egypt, they added the letter (S) to the Bedouins as usual (such as Pachom and Pachomius), so it became Neros, and the Arabs thought it was the Persian word of Nowruz.

And to link Nowruz with the Nile, they replaced the letter Ra (R) with the letter Lam (L), so it became Nilus instead of Neros, from which the Arabs derived the word (Nile) in the Arabic language.

As for the Persian word (Newroz), it means in Persian the new day (nu = new, rose = day).

It is considered the Persian New Year and falls on the day of the vernal equinox (Spring Festival) for the Persians and is celebrated on March 21.

And with the era of persecution, bloodshed, and martyrdom because of the pagan Emperor Diocletian, the Egyptians kept the dates and months of their years that the farmer relied on in agriculture by changing the number of years and zeroing it (returning it to zero) to make it the first year of Diocletian's rule = 282 AD = 1 Coptic = 4525 Toti (ancient Egyptian).

Hence, Nowruz is associated with Martyrs' Day.

Where in those distant days, Christians would go out this time to the places where they buried and hide the bodies of the martyrs to remember and honor them.

The Copts have retained this custom until our days in what they call the (Tal'a) season, and it was similar to that custom taken from the ancient Egyptians in the ancient Egyptian New Year celebrations..!!

This is the custom in ancient Egypt, and at the beginning of the feast, rituals were held at the end of the old year, which is about to end, as all statues of the dead are brought on the last day.

The hymns are recited at a specific time and from noon this day until the afternoon.

These hymns aimed to ascend the departed's souls so they could renew themselves to be received again before dawn.

And with the first day of the new year, spirits return to the Earth again to inhabit the statues.

The enormous festive ritual begins with dancing, singing, eating delicious foods such as meat, fish, and pancakes sweetened with honey and raisins, drinking spirits, visiting cemeteries, and distributing alms and flowers. 

As for Tut, the first month of the Coptic year is derived from the god Thoth (Thoth), the god of wisdom and knowledge.

He chose the beginning of the Egyptian year with the season of the flood because he found the right-wing star of Al-Shi'ari shining in the sky at this time.

This means that the ancient Egyptian year or the Coptic year is stellar and not a solar year, which makes it more accurate than the solar year, which needed the Gregorian adjustment later.

Therefore, it was not affected by this amendment because the sun is a million and a third of a million times larger than the Earth, and the right-wing poet is 200 times larger than the sun..!!

This means that it is 260 million times larger than the Earth, which makes the sidereal year more accurate at the time.