Intercalary month (Egypt)

Template:Short description The intercalary month or epagomenal days of the ancient Egyptian, Coptic, and Ethiopian calendars are a period of five days in common years and six days in leap years in addition to those calendars' 12 standard months, sometimes reckoned as their thirteenth month. They originated as a periodic measure to ensure that the heliacal rising of Sirius would occur in the 12th month of the Egyptian lunar calendar but became a regular feature of the civil calendar and its descendants. Coptic and Ethiopian leap days occur in the year preceding Julian and Gregorian leap years.

Names

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Those upon the YearTemplate:Efn Ḥryw Rnpt in hieroglyphs
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The Five upon the YearTemplate:Efn 5 Ḥryw Rnpt in hieroglyphs
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The English names "intercalary month" and "epagomenal days" derive from Latin ("proclaimed between") and Greek epagómenoi ()Template:Sfnp or epagómenai (, "brought in" or "added on"), Latinized as . The period is also sometimes known as the "monthless days".

In ancient Egypt, the period was known as the "Five Days upon the Year" (Template:Langx),Template:Sfnp the "Five Days" ()Template:Sfnp or "Those upon the Year" (), the last of which is transliterated as Heriu Renpet. Parker also proposed that in some cases the intercalary month was known by the name Thoth () after the festival that gave its name to the following month.Template:Sfnp

In modern Egypt, the period is known as Kouji NabotTemplate:Sfnp or Pi Kogi Enavot (Template:Langx, Pikouji n'Abot, lit."The Little Month") and Al-Nasi (Template:Langx, en-Nasiʾ, lit."The Postponement"), after Nasi' of the Pre-Islamic calendar. The Arabic name is also romanized as Nasie.

In Ethiopia, the period is known as Paguemain, Phagumien (Template:Langx, Ṗagʷəmen), Pagume,Template:Sfnp or Pagumay (, Ṗagume).

Egyptian calendars

Ancient

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Birth of Osiris Mswt Wsı͗r Ḥb in hieroglyphs
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Birth of HorusTemplate:Efn Mswt Ḥr in hieroglyphs
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Birth of Set Mswt Stẖ in hieroglyphs
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Birth of Isis Mswt Ꜣst Ḥb in hieroglyphs
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Birth of Nephthys Sw n Mswt Nbt Ḥwt in hieroglyphs
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Until the 4th century BC, the beginnings of the months of the lunar calendar were based on observation,Template:Sfnp beginning at dawn on the morning when a waning crescent moon could no longer be seen.Template:Sfnp The intercalary month was added every two or three years as needed to maintain the heliacal rising of Sirius within the fourth month of the season of Low Water.Template:Sfnp This month may have had as many as 30 days.Template:Sfnp According to the civil calendar, the months fell in order with the rest regardless of the state of the moon. They always consisted of 30 days, each individually named and devoted to a particular patron deity, but the year was always followed by an intercalary month of only five days. Owing to the lack of a leap day, the calendar slowly cycled relative to the solar year and Gregorian date until the Ptolemaic and Roman eras.

The period of the intercalary month was considered spiritually dangerousTemplate:Sfnp and the pharaoh performed a ritual known as "Pacifying Sekhmet" () to protect himself and the worldTemplate:Sfnp from that god's plague.Template:Sfnp The period seems to have usually been a time of rest, placed between the New Year's Eve celebrations on 30Wep Renpet and the New Year's celebrations beginning on 1Thoth.Template:Sfnp Scribes sometimes omitted the entire period from their records of the year.Template:Sfnp Torches were carriedTemplate:Sfnp and apotropaic charms were drawn on linen and worn around the neck.Template:Sfnp

The period was known as the "birthdays of the gods" as early as the Pyramid Texts.Template:Sfnp By the early Middle Kingdom, the days were specified and ordered:Template:Sfnp

• The first day was the Birth of Osiris ().Template:Sfnp It was also originally known as the "Pure Bull in His Field"Template:Sfnp (), although that aspect of the intercalary festivities was later moved to the second day as Horus grew in importance.Template:Sfnp
• The second was the Birth of Horus ().Template:Sfnp
• The third was the Birth of Set ().Template:Sfnp
• The fourth was the Birth of Isis ( or ).Template:Sfnp
• The last day was the Birth of Nephthys ().Template:Sfnp It was originally the most important, heralding in the New Year's festival and celebrating a "child in his nest" (),Template:Sfnp but these aspects shifted to the fourth night in the Ptolemaic and Roman period owing to the greater importance of Isis and her longstanding connection with the star Sirius.Template:Sfnp

Throughout the days, their connections to the solar boat of Ra, fish, and a "creator of terror" () were also stressed.Template:Sfnp In all but a handful of texts, however, the days are merely numbered as "Day ~ of the Five Days upon the Year".Template:Sfnp

Ptolemy III's Canopus Decree was an attempted calendrical reform in 239BC which would have inserted a sixth day into the intercalary month, but it was abandoned due to the hostility of the priests and people of Egypt. The leap day was finally established by Augustus in 30, 26,Template:Sfnp or 25BC. Under this "Alexandrian calendar", the epagomenal days ran from Julian 24 August to 28 August in common years and to 29 August in leap years.Template:SfnpTemplate:Efn

Coptic

In the present-day Coptic calendar, the intercalary month remains the same as the Alexandrian dates in the Julian calendar. In terms of the Gregorian calendar, it has begun on 6 September and ended on 10 September in common years and 11 September in leap years since AD1900 ([[Anno Martyrum|Template:Sc]]1616) and will continue to do so until AD2100 ([[Anno Martyrum|Template:Sc]]1816).Template:Sfnp In that year, the Gregorian calendar's lack of a leap day will cause the Coptic month to advance another day relative to it and it will run from 7 September to 11 September. Coptic leap years are not computed as divisors of four in that calendar's Diocletian era but occur in the year prior to the Gregorian leap year.Template:Efn

The Coptic liturgical calendar of the month consists of:

Coptic	Julian	Gregorian	Commemorations
Intercalary 1	24 August	6 September	Departure of St. Eutychus. Martyrdom of St. Pishay (Abshai), the Antiochian.
2	25 August	7 September	Departure of St. Titus, the Apostle. Martyrdom of St. Isaiah, brother of Apa Hor
3	26 August	8 September	Commemoration of Raphael, the Archangel. Martyrdom of St. Andrianus. Departure of St. John XIV, the 96th Pope of Alexandria.
4	27 August	9 September	Departure of St. Liberius, Bishop of Rome. Departure of St. Poimen, the Hermit. St. Inianamon
5	28 August	10 September	Departure of St. James, Bishop of Cairo. Departure of Amos, the Prophet. Departure of St. Parsoma, the "Naked". Departure of St. John XV, the 99th Pope of Alexandria.
only in years before Julian leap years
(6)	(29 August)	(11 September)	Thanksgiving to God the Exalted.

Ethiopian calendar

In the present-day Ethiopian calendar, Paguemain or Pagume is identical to the Coptic intercalary month, beginning on 6 September and ending on 10 September in common years and 11 September in leap years.Template:Sfnp Its leap years occur at the same timeTemplate:Sfnp and its dates will also shift forward one day relative to the Gregorian calendar in AD2100 (2092[[Ethiopian calendar|Template:Sc]]).Template:Sfnp

The unusual calendar is notably used in Ethiopian tourist information to advertise the country's "thirteen months of sunshine".Template:Sfnp

Mandaean calendar

The Mandaean calendar consisting of 12 30-day months, with 5 epagomenals inserted at the end of every 8th month (Mandaic: Šumbulta). These 5 extra days constitute the Parwanaya (or Panja) festival in the Mandaean calendar.

See also

• Egyptian, Coptic, and Ethiopian calendars
• Babylonian, Zoroastrian, and Armenian calendars
• Persian and Hebrew calendars
• Islamic calendar
• Sansculottides
• Nēmontēmi

References

Bibliography

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