The Akitu Festival
Maggie Yonan-California
1998
AKITU=BUILDING LIFE ON EARTH
BIT-AKITU=THE HOUSE OF BUILDING LIFE ON EARTH
The Assyrians celebrate the Assyrian New Year, Reesh Nissan on the first day of Spring, which is the Vernal Equinox. On this day, the sun and the moon are in perfect balance with each other, and the days and nights are equal in length. The Spring Equinox is marked by the first new moon of Spring., and this is why tonight, Assyrians all over the world will usher in the new year, which is the year 6755, on the Assyrian calendar.
In Assyria, the New Year, Reesh Nissan was celebrated by a traditional festival called the Akitu Festival, which served many purposes:
1) To establish harmony with nature, which was indispensable to a fruitful social life.
2) To reaffirm the bond between the community and God, the community here being represented by the king in temple ritual, for the king was the one responsible for the continual tending of earthly harmony and accountable to God.
3) To enact ritually the periodic changes of fortune humanity was subjected to, and to seek active participation in changing the fates of men and women by listening to God’s designs but at the same time searching for meaningful ways to attain the true destiny of each man and woman on earth.
Each city in Assyria celebrated the Akitu Festival on the same day: In Ur, in Nineveh, in Assur, and in Babylon, all the citizens ushered in the new year by twelve days of celebration. The twelve days of Akitu signified the 12 months of the year. Each day of the 12 days of Akitu was significant in it’s ritualistic re-enactment. First day of Spring, Khab Nissan, people started the day with prayer, thanking God for granting the renewal of life. The rest of the day was devoted to celebrating Khab Nissan with dancing, singing, and feasting.
On the second day, the high priest would pray to God to bless him, his country, and the citizens.
On the third day, the king would travel to the city of Borsippa to bring the statue of Nabu, who was one of the10 attributes of God, and Nabu represented scholarly knowledge. This means the Assyrians were passionate about education.
On the fourth day, the grand priest would recite the Assyrian story of creation, the Enuma Elish, (which literally means the creation of mother nature.) The Enuma Elish is the story of the big bang that created the heavens and the earth, the solar system and all the planets, and how Tiamet, which is chaos, explodes in half to create two planets: the upper half of Tiamat becomes the earth, the bottom half, becomes the moon.
On the fifth day, the population gathered by the river to cook and eat while the king entered the temple of Esaghila and went through a humiliating ritual intended to make him realize he is a mere humble servant of God, responsible for the welfare of his people. The high priest removed the king’s royal insignias, such as his crown, his scepter, his royal robe, and the kings would bow before God and take an oath that he has not sinned by betraying Assyria. After slapping a couple of times, the high priest would return the kings’s royal insignias and restore him back as the king of Assyria.
All of the 10 attributes of God participated in the Akitu Festival, but the king’s participation was the most significant. The 10 attributes were: Anu, Ea, Maamu, Ishtar, Nergal, Sin, Nabu, Enlil, Adad, and Shamash. The 10 attributes of God are outlined in the Assyrian Tree of Life, which some of you have read as the Qaballah, or Qabal Alah, which means accept God.
After the 12 days were over, the agricultural season would begin and they would start planting the crops.
We will be re-enacting the 12 days of Akitu today, at 2PM, at the Assyrian Cultural Center of Bet Nahrain, located at 3119 Central Ave., Ceres, Ca.
