You don't have to follow Kemetic Orthodoxy in order to be Kemetic- there are many different sects, and not everyone would agree that KO is the most traditional version out there. There are many aspects of it which are modern innovations- though I believe the leadership is sincerely committed to revitalizing the religion in a form of which the Egyptian gods would approve... I don't agree with everything they teach or do, myself.
wink The Egyptian calendar is a complex construct, actually made up of three calendars: a stellar calendar, a lunar calendar, and a solar calendar. The stellar and lunar calendars are use for most of the religious holidays, and the solar one was mainly used for agriculture and government. But the stellar and lunar calendars do not correspond exactly to a solar year- and so the dates of the holidays shift about a bit from one year to the next. This is why, whenever you find a site which gives you a precise date correspondence for an ancient Egyptian holiday and suggests that this is
the date on which this festival was held, you can know that they are either being extremely misleading, or they don't really know what they're talking about. Because that can't happen.
sweatdrop There are a lot of festivals on the calendars used by modern Kemetics, however- this is because each temple had their own set of holidays. Not all of those holidays were celebrated at every temple- most would only celebrate those directly involving their particular deities, perhaps along with some with widespread cultural significance, and leave the others to be celebrated by those devoted to the relevant gods. The dates were also keyed to the alignments of certain stars over the temple for whom each particular calendar was being formulated. The Egyptians were specialists in many things, it seems.
wink However, in modern Kemetic communities not everyone has the necessary training or equipment to plot their own calendar- and those who do are usually doing so on behalf of a large and diverse community. So they have compiled
every known calendar into one single calendar- hence the overwhelm, heh. And they have keyed all of those dates to one particular location- usually the site of the founder's shrine or temple. So here is what I suggest that you do:
If you are studying with any particular group, I suggest you use their dates. If not, I suggest finding a group which you respect and adopt theirs- the main groups with regularly updated calendars are the House of Netjer or Akhet Hwt-Hrw. I have found that following a calendar is a wonderful way of aligning yourself with the natural cycles of a community's growth and development. I am following the KO calendar, these days, since I am also studying with them. And I suggest that you pick out, from that calendar, the festivals which involve the deities with whom you feel a strong resonance. In addition to this, you might look into festivals with general significance- the New Year, Wep Ronpet, is coming up soon (or already past, depending on your calculations), and that will be a big deal for everyone regardless of their particular affiliation.
This calendar, though it has not been updated for four years and is therefore seriously out of date, has put culturally significant holidays in bold/italicized font- making them easier to pick out. But of those which have been marked, I think the most important are Wep Ronpet, Wag, Opet, and perhaps the Mysteries of Wsyr. All of which are conveniently located on the link which Vertigo gave us- thanks for that, btw, Vertigo! I've seen that site before but somehow missed that particular page of it!
Good luck!
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