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n Five thousand years ago, in the cradle of Westernncivilization that lay between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates that we now callnIraq, the ancient Babylonians and Sumerians held their New Year celebrations atnabout the time of the Spring Equinox. These Mesopotamians (a word that means ‘[dwellersnof the land] between the rivers’), the Babylonians to the north andnthe Sumerians further to the south called this festival, respectively, Akitanand Zagmuk (or Zakmuk).
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| Map of Mesopotamia |
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nThe final days of the year were a time ofndecay and death, as the very year itself withered and died, and thoughts turnednto the departed. The terrible chaos goddess Tiamat threatened to destroynthe world and all its inhabitants; she was a sea-monster, born of the marriagenof fresh and salt water, who gave birth to a generation of young gods, on whomnshe later declared war. From these young gods, one rose to lead the fightnagainst Tiamat and defeated her, thus saving the world.
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| Marduk & Tiamat |
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nHe was Marduk, anyoung Sun god, whose name comes through amar-ud – ‘Youth of the Sun’,nand maru Duku – ‘Child of the Holy chamber’, who was also called Bêl whichnmeans ‘Lord’ and may be known to Bible readers as Ba’al (when Bêl is mentioned,nit always refers to Marduk). Marduk fought against chaos and was killed,nspending time in the underworld before being resurrected, returning to life tondefeat the forces of evil and so becoming the King of the gods.
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| Limestone bas-relief of Marduk and Tiamat |
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nHe was anfertility god and a grain god, his death symbolised the death of the sun innwinter, his sojourn in the underworld is the grain lying dormant in the ground,nand his return is the arrival of spring, new growth and green leaves.
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| Clearer image of the above relief |
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nThe feastnof Akita (and Zagmuk) lasted for twelve days; on the first threendays, the priests would come to the high Temple of Marduk in Babylon, the Ésagila,nand offer prayers of lamentation and supplication. These prayers were repeatednon the fourth day, when the Enûma Eliš, the great Babylonian Epic ofnCreation, was recited, telling the story of Marduk’s victory over Tiamat.
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| Cuneiform tablets of the Enuma Elis |
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nOnnthe fifth day, the king of Babylon came to the Ésagila, was stripped ofnhis crown, robes and regalia, and was humiliated by the High Priest, who strucknhim in the face, symbolising submission before the greater power of the god,nafter which his crown was returned, symbolising the god’s approval of his royalnand civic roles.
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| The Tower of Babel |
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nMarduk is then captured by the evil gods and held prisoner bynthem, in the Etemenanki, a seven-storey ziggurat (identified in the Torah andnthe Bible as the Tower of Babel), where he awaits the arrival of his son, Nabu.nHe arrives on day six, symbolised by a great, formal procession of the King andnthe citizens of Babylon to the Ésagila, and on day seven, Nabu frees hisnembattled father.
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| Nabu, son of Marduk |
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nThe eighth day saw the gathering of the statues of the godsnin the hall of Destinies, where they bestow their powers on Marduk, confirmingnhis primacy over them all. A victory procession to the House of Akita, situatednoutside the city walls, took place on the ninth day, as the populace celebratednMarduk’s defeat of Tiamat, and on the tenth day, Marduk returns to earth duringnthe night and marries the goddess Ishtar, their roles acted by the King ofnBabylon and the High Priestess of the Ésagila. The eleventh day sees thenreturn to the hall of Destinies, where the gods and Marduk renew their covenantnwith mankind before they return to Heaven, and on the final day, the statues ofnthe gods were returned to their places in the Ésagila and the king wouldnbe slain, so that his spirit could assist Marduk – although, in reality, ancriminal would be elected as a proxy king and killed in place of the true king.
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| Marduk slays Tiamat |
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nWe can see here clear parallels here with the Lord of Misrule, a substitutenking who takes over the responsibilities of the real king at the festival time,nas well as story of Jesus and Barabbas in the New Testament, (Barabbas means,nliterally, ‘Son of the Lord’), and the wide-spread legends of the dying god whonreturns to life. The twelve days of Zagmuk are the origins of our twelve daysnof Christmas, although moved from the Babylonian New Year to our New Year, andnthey may well be the intercalary adjustment of 11.25 days needed to reconcilenthe 354 days of the lunar year with the 365.25 days of the solar year.
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