How Often is Public Drunkeness OK?

I am serious. I think there should be a public Festival of Drunkeness this year.

The ancient Egyptian festival in honor of the Lion Goddess Mut is thought to have taken place once yearly around the time of my birthday (end of July, beginning of August – good excuse for a party, historical and celebratory). During the days long festival people would drink to excess and have wild sexual encounters in the hopes that they would eventually pass out and commune with the Goddess.

The Goddess during this time was being offered a beer colored red like blood to calm her violent tendencies and bring her into a drunken stupor. It seems as though the logic went something like, “Hey, if the Goddess is drunk and I’m drunk, then we should be able to have a great conversation.” I guess it worked considering the common folk weren’t suppoesed to be able to commune with the Gods and Goddesses. That was a job for the high priests. However, it seems more likely that the conversations were more of the kind you overhear in a dive bar than honest to goodness spiritual communing. But, then again, what really is the difference.

So, this festival brought the Goddess down to a human level, allowed the common folk to invite her into a conversation, and enabled people to do things they weren’t allowed to do during the rest of the year; namely, get drunk and screw.

Interestingly, there were people assigned to the roles of chaperones, the Mistress of Drunkeness being one. These people had to make certain that no one injured themsleves during the festivities, and to make sure they all had too much to drink. Remember, the main goal of this party was to pass out.

I swear this facet of ancient Egypt is sounding more and more like a fraternity.

The Egyptologist behind all this fascinating information is named Betsy Bryan, and the progress of her team in Egypt can be tracked on their diary-like website.

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