Sed festival

The Sed festival (ḥb-sd, conventional pronunciation /sɛd/; also known as Heb Sed or Feast of the Tail) was an ancient Egyptian ceremony that celebrated the continued rule of a pharaoh. The name is taken from the name of an Egyptian wolf god, one of whose names was Wepwawet or Sed. The less-formal feast name, the Feast of the Tail, is derived from the name of the animal's tail that typically was attached to the back of the pharaoh's garment in the early periods of Egyptian history. This tail might have been the vestige of a previous ceremonial robe made out of a complete animal skin.

The ancient festival might have been instituted to replace a ritual of murdering a pharaoh who was unable to continue to rule effectively because of age or condition. Eventually, Sed festivals were jubilees celebrated after a ruler had held the throne for thirty years and then every three to four years after that. The festival, primarily, served to reassert pharaonic authority and state ideology. Sed festivals implied elaborate temple rituals and included processions, offerings, and such acts of religious devotion as the ceremonial raising of a djed, the base or sacrum of a bovine spine, a phallic symbol representing the strength, "potency and duration of the pharaoh's rule". The festival also involved symbolic reaffirmation of the pharaoh's rulership over Upper and Lower Egypt. Pharaohs who followed the typical tradition, but did not reign so long as 30 years had to be content with promises of "millions of jubilees" in the afterlife.

Despite the antiquity of the Sed festival and the hundreds of references to it throughout the history of ancient Egypt, the most detailed records of the ceremonies—apart from the reign of Amenhotep III—come mostly from "relief cycles of the Fifth Dynasty king Neuserra... in his sun temple at Abu Ghurab, of Akhenaten at East Karnak, and the relief cycles of the Twenty-second Dynasty king Osorkon II... at Bubastis."

There is clear evidence for early pharaohs celebrating the Heb Sed, such as the First Dynasty pharaoh Den and the Third Dynasty pharaoh Djoser. In the Pyramid of Djoser, there are two boundary stones in his Heb Sed court, which is within his pyramid complex. He also is shown performing the Heb Sed in a false doorway inside his pyramid. The two boundary stones would have functioned as symbolic reminders of Djoser's dominion over Upper and Lower Egypt, and their placement within his mortuary complex would allow the king to continue carrying out the Heb-Sed in perpetuity after his death.

One of the earlier Sed festivals for which there is substantial evidence is that of the Sixth Dynasty pharaoh Pepi I Meryre in the South Saqqara Stone Annal document, as the document corroborates a reign of at least 40 years, despite its damage. In addition, there are alabaster containers commemorating Pepi I's first Sed festival.

Given the subsequent First Intermediate Period, there is a lack of extant monuments and other manifestations of centralized state activity, creating a void of any evidence of a Sed festival after the Sixth Dynasty.

During the Middle Kingdom, the power of the pharaoh became consolidated once again and monuments began to be built as they had previously in the Old Kingdom.

Amenemhat I, based on evidence provided by foundation blocks in his pyramid, appears to have ruled coregent with his son Senusret I. Based upon the chronology presented by the monument, the 29th regnal year of Amenemhat I would have been the 10th regnal year of his son. Therefore, Amenemhat I would have been ineligible for a sed festival, at least per tradition. However, according to the Story of Sinouhe, it is recounted that preparations were underway for Amenemhat I to perform his first sed festival anyways before his assassination.