Sed festival

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The sed festival (or heb sed) was an ancient Egyptian ceremony held to celebrate the continued rule of a pharaoh.

Sed festivals were jubilees held after a ruler had held the throne for thirty years and then every three (or four in one case) years after that. However, a few Pharaohs violated the traditional 30 year rule particularly in the case of Hatshepsut who celebrated her jubilee in her 16th regnal year at Thebes. However, some Egyptologists, such as Von Beckerath, in his book Chronology of the Egyptian Pharaohs, speculate that Hatshepsut may have done so to mark the passing of 30 years from the death of her father, Thutmose I, from whom she gained all of her legitimacy to rule Egypt. If true, then the intervening king, Tuthmose II would have enjoyed a reign of 13 full years as Manetho states in his Epitome.

There is clear evidence for earlier kings celebrating the Heb Sed, such as Den and Djoser. Within his pyramid complex, there are two boundary stones in his Heb Sed court, in the Pyramid of Djoser. He is also shown performing the Heb Sed in a false doorway inside his pyramid.

Sed Festivals contained elaborate temple rituals and included processions, offerings and other acts of religious devotion. One of the earliest Sed festivals for which we have evidence is that of Pepi I in the South Saqqara Stone Annal document and the most lavish, judging by surviving inscriptions, were those of Ramesses II and Amenhotep III. Sed Festivals were also celebrated by the later Libyan era kings such as Shoshenq III, Shoshenq V, Osorkon I who had his second Heb Sed in his year 33 and Osorkon II. Osorkon II himself constructed a massive temple at Bubastis complete with a red granite gateway decorated with scenes of this jubilee to commemorate his own Heb Sed.