The Ancient Palmyrians devoted the sixth of April as a Good Day
In general , April was the beginning of the renewal of life in the religious concepts of Palmyra and East where the ritualistic celebrations start on the first of April and reach its peak on the sixth day which is the sacred day where the Bel temple the most important and largest temples in the ancient Near East was founded and devoted .
“This day was described and named the ‘Good Day ‘in a religious Greek inscription. The ritualistic and religious celebrations start on the beginning of April coinciding with the arrival of tens of thousands of delegations of pilgrims and worshipers from all over the world to the vast courtyard of the temple which was decorated by aureus columns and gates” the archaeologist Muhammad Khaled Asaad told SANA .
He added that the pilgrims and worshipers would all be wearing excellent quality clothes , the men and women would be perfumed , the vendors would gather everywhere and hundreds of priests would be dressed in embroidered white clothes decorated with gold and gems and their crowned caps carrying incense and scented jugs of fragrant oil .
The Archaeologist indicated that every one would witness the arrival of batches of cattle to be slaughtered .
These were used as offerings and sacrificial vows to the gods. These celebrations reach their climax on April the 6th , where the main ritual of festival started according to Asaad, the circumambulation which inflames the enthusiasm of the worshipers and devotees in the temple, and these religious rituals remained common and known until the emergence of Islam.
Rawaa Ghanam