An Essay on Hittite Cultic Calendar Based Upon the Festivals

Abstract

Due to the lack of adequate information, there is no an attempt to make a Hittite cultic calendar. But, festivals associated with the agricultural cycle for the Hittite cultic calendar can be taken into account. There were numerous festivals in Hittite Anatolia during the second millennium BC. While some of these festivals took more than one month, some were taking in a few hours. Typically, Hittite festivals have spiritual characteristics and consist of libations for different types of gods. It is possible to make a cultic calendar considering the distribution of festivals during the year. Most of the festivals are taking place in autumn and spring. Therefore, it may be said that Hittite festivals are connected with the agricultural cycle. The spring feats in the beginning of agricultural activities celebrated for the gods related to "seed" and the autumn feats in the end of the agricultural activities celebrated for the gods related to "harvest". This situation indicates that the Hittite cultic calendar has an economic aspect. The gods in the Hittite pantheon represent natural events that determine agricultural activities. For this reason it can be said that the agricultural cycle formed the Hittite cultic calendar. Even though they were a major political power in the 2 nd Millennium BC Anatolia, Hittites remained under the influence of other societies in cultural terms. This influence can be clearly observed especially in religious aspects. Relating with the spiritual world of the Hittites, religious festivals, rituals and mythological tales bear evident traces of the Anatolian and other Near Eastern communities of Antiquity. It is also possible to monitor this influence on Greek and Roman cultures, after the period of the Hittites. 1 Most Hittite cuneiform texts bear religious characteristics in nature. These texts mention the names of about one hundred seventy festivals 2 and rituals. They were celebrated on a regular basis and this situation indicates the existence of a cultic calendar. In the current study, a dating effort will be made to find out the distribution of these religious events throughout the year. Except for a few great festivals, most Hittite cuneiform texts only mention the names of the religious festivals and rituals. Even though the subject is disputed, it should not be forgotten that the term "festival" could be used in a different meaning-as opposed to present connotations-by Hittites, because the

Celestial Aspects of Hittite Religion, Part 2: Cosmic Symbolism at Yazilikaya

“…The same is true for Hittite documents. Even so, with the surviving texts it is still possible to reconstruct with high geographical and chronological resolution which fixed calendar was used when and where in different parts of the ancient Near East (Cohen 2015) including Ḫatti (Demirel 2017), since festivals were held to coincide with certain seasons and agricultural activities.…”