Draft:Ancient Egyptian Day
The day as seen in Ancient Egypt / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Day in Ancient Egypt corresponded to 24 ancient Egyptian hours, divided into "twelve day hours" and "twelve night hours." The twelve day hours typically began with sunrise and lasted until sunset, followed by the twelve night hours. The hours were unequal with their length varying by season, and being equal at the Equinox. The visible Sun thus marked the light day. Therefore, in the Egyptian Calendar, the date changed not at midnight, as in the Gregorian Calendar and Julian Calendar, but with sunrise.[1][2]
This is a draft article. It is a work in progress open to editing by anyone. Please ensure core content policies are met before publishing it as a live Wikipedia article. Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL Last edited by CommonsDelinker (talk | contribs) 52 days ago. (Update)
Finished drafting? Submit for review or Publish now |
Day in hieroglyphs | |||
---|---|---|---|
Re Rˁ Tag | |||
The Ancient Egyptian Day began at sunrise |
The first day of the month in the Ancient Egyptian Lunar Calendar [de] began right at the instant the waxing crescent moon became invisible in the dawn before sunrise.[3] Since the last night hours belonged to the old day, the invisibility of the moon was a reliable signal immediately before the rising sun.[3] At new moon, sighting a crescent moon is generally not possible, as the moonrise occurs almost simultaneously with the sun without crescent formation, and the new light moon cannot be seen with the naked eye.[3]
The ancient Egyptian day always dated over the period of two Julian or Gregorian days. Heliacal risings of stars always belonged to the old day, which is why they are to be backdated by one day in the Julian or Gregorian calendar. For example, if Sirius as the signal for the Nile Flood had its heliacal rising on June 20, this event in the ancient Egyptian calendar still counted for June 19. According to this definition, the arrangements of the Diagonal Star Clocks [de] and the entries in the Book of Nut are made. There, all visible Decans are divided into the phases of heliacal rising, acronychal culmination, and acronychal setting and assigned to an ancient Egyptian day: "One Decan dies (acronychal setting) and another lives (heliacal rising) at the beginning of a Decan."[4]