Egyptian Holidays

March 5	Ploiaphaesia: The Festival of Navigation, a celebration of Isis as the ruler over safe navigation, boats, fishing, and the final journey of life
March 20	The Spring harvest festival honoring Isis
April 1	Day of Hathor
June 16 (or June 14)	Night of the Teardrop, Feast of the Waters of the Nile celebrating Isis and her sorrows
June 24	Burning of the Lamps in Egypt at Sais, a celebration of Isis and Neith
July 17	Birthday of Isis*
July 18	Birthday of Nephthys *
July 19	Egyptian New Year. The Opet Festival or Marriage of Isis and Osiris*
July 27	1st Epagomenal Day♦ Birthday of Osiris**
July 28	2nd Epagomenal Day♦ Birthday of Horus**
July 29	3rd Epagomenal Day♦ Birthday of Set**
July 30	4th Epagomenal Day♦ Birthday of Isis**
July 31	5th Epagomenal Day♦ Birthday of Nephthys**
August 1	Egyptian New Year**
August 6	Festival of Thoth
August 7	Breaking of the Nile, dedicated to Hathor
August 12	The Blessing of the Boats
September 13-14	Ceremony of Lighting the Fire, honoring Nephthys and the spirits of the dead
October 7	The Going-Forth of Isis
October 26	Full Moon festival of Hathor
October 28 - November 2	The Isia, a six-day festival of Isis celebrating the search and recovery of Osiris, concludes on November 3
October 31	Feast of Sekhmet and Bast
November 3	The last day of Isia - the rebirth of Osiris
November 24	Feast of the Burning Lamps for Isis and Osiris
December 8	Festival of Neith
December 21	Osiris' return to Isis in Egypt

**These dates come from Traci de Regulla in "The Mysteries of Isis." She took her dating from Dr. Robert Brier's "Ancient Egyptian Magic." There is a great deal of dispute when it comes to calculating the dates of Egyptian festivals due to problems in their calendar system (it was only 360 days for some period of time). See note below.

♦The 5 Epagomenal Days (6 during leap years) were inserted into the Egyptian Calendar which had been 360 days long. These days were reserved as birthdays for the gods. The legend behind the days holds the Nut had been forbidden to have children on any day of the year by her husband Geb. Thoth, upon hearing this, gambled with the moon-god for a fraction of his light. Thoth won and he created the additional 5 days for Nut so she could bear children on these days "not of the year."