On 14/02/2012 12:08, Lil Osborn wrote:
The article I mentioned traces it back to the original Opet fest - where
the goddess mut comes to visit amun-min -
the making of bread and sweet figures has a very old tradition all over
the near east -
the god on horse back or his vehicle would be like the god in his barque -
although St George is another interesting link -
probably Seth & Apep , although also Horus and crocodiles
(yes the national Saint of England might well be Seth : )
I also wonder if the Copts have something similar as they still follow
the old pharoanic festival calendar?
It's all a kind of eucharist, or perhaps origin of the later eucharist
- the Luxor version she was shown once shown on a bed - now she is often
dressed in bridal clothes -
do you know if folk actually eat them at the end of the fest?
senebty
Mogg
> The festival is common throughout the non Wahhabi Muslim world, in Egypt it is the Prophet Mohamed's birthday the little sugar people are made for. The female figure, who always wears a taj/crown, is referred to as "The Bride" or "The Bride of the Saint", the male figure is always on a horse and carries a sword. They are clearly not Islamic (the Salafs are right on that one!) I thought that St George might be involved as he is big in Egyptian Christianity but the Copts don't seem to have anything similar. Tempting to surmise they could be even older. Relatives have confirmed the sugar folk are absent from many of the usual outlets this year.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 14 Feb 2012, at 10:58, mandrake<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> On 14/02/2012 09:18, Noah Gardiner wrote:
>>
>> many thanks for info
>> adding that to my weblog now : )
>>
>>> 'Mawlid' (moulid, مولد) means birthday, 'al-nabi' means the prophet, i.e. Muhammad. However, in many places there will also be mawlids celebrating the birthdays of various local Sufi saints (such as the mawlid for Sidi Abu al-Hajjaj in the article you cite). Mawlid traditions go back more than a millenia, but a lot of Salafis regard them as a heretical innovation, so they're controversial these days in some places. Nonetheless, throughout much of the Muslim world mawlids define the local ritual calendar, much as saints' days do in strongly-Catholic parts of Europe.
>>>
>>> - Noah
>
|