A great feature of the
festival was the nocturnal illumination. People fastened rows of
oil-lamps to the outside of their houses, and the lamps burned all
night long. The custom was not confined to Sais, but was observed
throughout the whole of Egypt.
This universal illumination of the houses on one night of the year
suggests that the festival may have been a commemoration not merely
of the dead Osiris but of the dead in general, in other words, that
it may have been a night of All Souls. For it is a widespread belief
that the souls of the dead revisit their old homes on one night of
the year; and on that solemn occasion people prepare for the
reception of the ghosts by laying out food for them to eat, and
lighting lamps to guide them on their dark road from and to the
grave. Herodotus, who briefly describes the festival, omits to
mention its date, but we can determine it with some probability from
other sources. Thus Plutarch tells us that Osiris was murdered on
the seventeenth of the month Athyr, and that the Egyptians
accordingly observed mournful rites for four days from the
seventeenth of Athyr.
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