Egyptian Dziady

To come up with elaborate theories based on the following would be foolish and premature but, upon finding it, it is difficult to view this description as not remarkable.

Erman

This comes from Adolph Erman’s Aegypten und Aegyptischenes Leben im Altertum. Similar descriptions were made in Karl Heinrich Brugsch’s Religion und mythologie der alten Ägypter and they made they way to James Frazer’s “The Golden Bough”.

Frazer

Here we have ancient Egyptian rites culminating with the erection of a pillar which was referred to as Tatu, Tat, or Ded. This was, seemingly, according to Frazer, very much like a Słup Majowy – a Maypole.

Frazer makes an interesting observation about all this by noting that these Egyptian rites for the dead Osiris took place in the month of Athyr. This month corresponds to November. Since Frazer views this as a harvest festival he has to explain how a harvest festival could be celebrated in November when it is known that – in Egypt – the harvest falls in April. Of course, the harvest in the North, such as in Poland, falls between the middle of June and the middle of August. But… when did the harvest occur in Poland back 4,500 years ago? In any event, we all know that the festival of the dead, Dziady, falls on or about All Saints Day, that is November 1.

For more wacky Egyptian “Slavic” stuff see here and here.