For the ancient Egyptians, time was not neutral. Each day carried with it the memory of an event that had happened to the gods, and that event determined its character. Certain papyri, which scholars call calendars of lucky and unlucky days, record for every day of the year whether it was favourable, unfavourable or mixed, often with the mythical story that justified it and with guidance on what to avoid.
The main sources
The two best-known witnesses date to the Ramesside period:
- papyrus Cairo 86637, kept in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which contains the most complete calendar to survive;
- papyrus Sallier IV, now in the British Museum, which gives a parallel version with many mythological notes.
Fragments of similar texts also come from other settings, a sign that this kind of knowledge circulated and was copied. The differences between versions show that there was no single canonical calendar, but a tradition with local variants.
How it is organised
The Egyptian civil year had twelve months of thirty days, grouped into three seasons: Akhet, the inundation; Peret, growth; Shemu, harvest. To these were added five final days, called epagomenal days.
In the calendar of lucky days, each day is divided into three parts, and each part receives a verdict. The signs used are simple:
| Sign | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Hieroglyph nefer in black | Favourable |
| Hieroglyph aha in red | Unfavourable, literally "fighting" |
| Combinations of the two | Mixed day, good in some parts |
The use of red ink for negative days is telling: red, the colour of Seth and of the desert, signalled danger.
The myths behind the dates
The calendar's real value lies in its explanations. One day is unlucky because on that date Seth fought against Horus; another is favourable because the gods celebrated Ra's victory or the return of the distant goddess. The year thus becomes a map of myth: to live through a certain day meant living in the echo of what had happened in the divine world.
The prescriptions attached to the days are often concrete. They advise, for instance, not to leave the house after sunset, not to set out on a river journey, not to light a fire in the house, not to listen to singing on a given day. These are ritual norms, not practical rules: they follow the logic of myth, not that of everyday experience.
The fate of those born
Some entries concern the day of birth. The calendar states that a person born on a certain date will die in a particular way, or will live long and honoured. It is one of the few places where Egyptian culture formulates something like a horoscope, but without recourse to the stars: fate derives from the mythical character of the day, not from the position of the planets.
The epagomenal days
The five days added at the end of the year had a special status. According to myth, five deities were born on them: Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis and Nephthys. They were boundary days between one year and the next, regarded as delicate and dangerous. There are specific spells for passing through them safely, recited for protection against the forces unleashed in the transition. The birthday of Seth in particular was feared.
Who used these calendars
The calendars were probably kept and interpreted by priests and scribes. They were not popular texts read by everyone, but specialist knowledge, perhaps consulted to fix the date of an undertaking, a ceremony or a journey. Some papyri come from circles of educated craftsmen, evidence of an interest that reached beyond the temple.
A qualitative time
The calendar of lucky and unlucky days expresses a deep idea: time is not a sequence of identical units, but a fabric of differing qualities. The same principle would reappear, in other forms, in the Mediterranean and medieval traditions of the Egyptian days, the dies Aegyptiaci, whose name preserves the memory of the origin attributed to this knowledge. Studio Esoterico Cornelio recognises in it one of the ancient roots of the symbolic perception of time, in which every day has a face.
In short
- Calendars of lucky days assign each day a favourable, unfavourable or mixed value.
- The main sources are papyrus Cairo 86637 and papyrus Sallier IV, from the Ramesside period.
- Each day is divided into three parts, with negative days marked in red.
- The verdicts derive from events in myth, such as the struggles between Horus and Seth.
- The five epagomenal days, birthdays of five deities, were regarded as delicate thresholds.
