Season of the Harvest

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The Season of the
Harvest – Smw
in hieroglyphs

The Egyptian term Season of the Harvest (the Egyptian or Shemu is transliterated as Smw – and occasionally written as Shomu). The word Shemu literally translates as "low-water" and corresponded roughly from mid-March to mid-July when the crops of the grain harvest were collected.^[1] Shemu was the third and final season of the Ancient Egyptian calendar (the other two were akhet and peret). It received its name because this was the period when the Egyptian peasants would harvest their crops -- in clear variance to the practice of their contemporaries in the ancient world, who had just begun to plant their crops at this time. It is also known as the summer or 'dry' season^[2] and is occasionally written as Shomu.^[3]

The ancient Egyptians used this name in both their lunar and their civil calendars. The months of the lunar calendar are roughly equivalent to the period from the middle of March to the heliacal rising of Sirius, which during the time of the Egyptians occurred on July 17-19 (Julian). According to Richard A. Parker, to keep their lunar calendar in harmony with the rising of this star, an intercalendary month (named Thoth, after the god, which meant the year often had two months with the same name) would be added to the end of the season, usually every 4 years, but sometimes every second year.

Since the civil calendar moved through the seasons over time, losing about one day every four years, this season does not continuously match any part of the modern calendar; it consists of the four 30-day months of Pachons, Payni, Epiphi and Mesore, and a five-day period that was considered to be an intercalendary period which brought the civil year to a total of 365 days.