New Year’s Festival of Drunkenness: Not a New Idea

If you partied like a lunatic on New Year’s Eve, here’s a new excuse for your drunken revelry: you were just doing your part to save mankind from destruction.

According to a Discovery Channel news article, ancient Egyptians participated in a Festival of Drunkenness on the New Year that included drinking beer, singing, dancing and engaging in sexual activity. All these revelries were performed under the strict supervision of a couple people whose job it was to remain sober. An ancient designated driver?

Unlike our own New Year’s celebrations, the ancient party was NOT for fun. New Year’s inebriation was a serious business. According to a myth called “The Destruction of Mankind,” there’s a Lion Goddess who likes to snack on humans. When the goddess gets drunk, she tends to forget her appetite for human flesh, so it was everyone’s religious duty to go down to their local temple and attend a New Year’s orgy.

Wow. Those ancients really knew how to party.

Happy New Year!

~Joy
www.joynash.com