Luxor4u

Now I might be displaying my ignorance but I don't care. Ancient Egyptians had a number of different Gods and a priesthood that communed with those Gods, right? My question is though was there mass worship? Did people gather to worship the Gods, I know that only certain people were allowed access to the holy of holies, there are open courtyards though and was the ordinary Egyptian able to go there to pray to their God.

carrie wrote:Now I might be displaying my ignorance but I don't care. Ancient Egyptians had a number of different Gods and a priesthood that communed with those Gods, right? My question is though was there mass worship? Did people gather to worship the Gods, I know that only certain people were allowed access to the holy of holies, there are open courtyards though and was the ordinary Egyptian able to go there to pray to their God.

They didn't gather for worship in the modern christian or islamic sense. As you say. access to the inner parts of temples was restricted to the priesthood. Individuals might access the outer courts to bring offerings.

Mass worship, of a kind, took place during festivals when the people could observe the (covered) statues of the gods being paraded. But it was more of a party atmosphere than church worship!

Ordinary Egyptians might make offerings to local gods, or house gods, in their own homes.

You might find this article of interest :

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/commonpiety.htm

Thank you very much for the article Newcastle. Extremely interesting!

Thanks for that Newcastle.