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Victorian “Mummy Reveal” Parties
Three thousand years ago, Egyptians preserved the dead through an embalming process led by their priests so that the departed might be well-provided for in the afterlife. Jewelry, clothing, food, drink, pets and, it is reputed, small amounts of cocaine were prepared to accompany the soul to the next world. These ceremonies to honor their dead were done with great care and expertise.
Priests served as embalmers and during this process the high priest wore the mask of Anubis, the god of death, surgeons and healers. This team of attendants dehydrated and soaked the body in preservatives. Prayers and rituals were performed, and afterward, all internal organs, except for the heart, were removed from the body cavity. A special hook was used to removed the brain so that the face would not be disfigured. Yards and yards of material were then used to wrap the body. It was believed that Anubis would guide them during this seventy-day process of preserving the body.
The term “mummy” comes from the Persian and Arabic word “mum”, or “mumiya”, referring to liquid bitumen, a sulfur used to preserve the body. So, the word “mummy” originally meant a substance in the embalming process. Shakespeare’s Othello tells Desdemona that his lost handkerchief had magical properties because it was dyed in mummy.
‘Tis true. There’s magic in the web of it.
A sibyl, that had numbered in the world
The sun to course two hundred compasses,
In her prophetic fury sewed the work.
The worms were hallowed that did breed the silk,
And it was dyed in mummy which the skillful
Conserved of maidens’ hearts.’
Othello, Act III, Scene IV
