Thousands of years ago, the 30th day of the third month of the season of flood (October) marked the Elephantine Festival of Anuket.

Elephantine Island is now part of the modern city of Aswan in southern Egypt.

Anuket was considered one of the protectors of the Nile and was depicted as a woman wearing a high crown of feathers.  Anuket was part of a triad with the god Khnum, and the goddess Satis, known as the Triad of Elephantine.

It is said that she appeared with Taweret (a god of pregnancy and fertility) on funeral rites too. This represented two goddesses protecting the waters as a soul made their journey onwards.

Perhaps it is fitting that a festival relating to a god that protected the waters, the journey onwards to the afterlife, comes the day before Halloween/Samhaim… 🙂