As far as I can remember I haven’t known anyone with a birthday in April. The calendar has at least one birthday marked on every month ‐ except April. Not that it makes much of a difference, but the thought just crossed my mind. Perhaps, one of you reading this post is celebrating a birthday this month?
But it’s a beautiful, springy month. When it arrives, it announces the beginning of long days and short nights. What’s more, it relieves us from the long month of March. Have you ever noticed how those thirty-one days of March feel like the slowest in the entire calendar? Perhaps, It’s just me feeling that, but they really crawl at a turtle’s pace.
Have you ever heard about the Nile Bride? In case you haven’t, here’s the story.
Once upon a time and in a special April day, during the Pharaonic era, the Ancient Egyptians decided to offer a maiden bride as a sacrifice bride to the Nile. They believed this act would make the river flow all over the year and bring abundant harvests.
The bride was chosen at a young age. The status of her family was important, and so was her record of medical health. And, of course, she had to learn swimming. After all, it would be a shame, if history said that the Ancient Egyptians who built the great pyramids used to sacrifice a bride who couldn’t swim on the Nile’s alter. Besides, the Nile would expect a beautiful bride not a corpse. Therefore, the Great King would deliver a memorable speech at the ceremony, clearing up any misconceptions or alterations about the sacred rules that might emerge in the future.
‘The Nile isn’t an artificial lake or a small muddy pond. It is the lifeblood of Egypt,’ boasts the king. ‘Our Nile deserves the best, and his bride shall be our queen for an entire year.” The king voice reverberates, and the crowd cheers. ‘This gold crown with all its diamonds and holy stones is your dowry, our Nile Bride, our queen.’ The king places tge crown on the bride’s head, offering her his blessing.
‘And if you don’t survive, our Nile will still be pleased, for the dowry will return to its holy source,’ the king declared, his gaze fixed on the bride. ‘Now you have two wishes; one to be gratnted if you return safe and sound, and one to be fulfilled if you don’t.’
Silence enveloped the entire scene. The crowd stood tall, strong, and mute like granite statues. The birds hid among the trees. The horses grazed here and there, moving as quietly and slowly as old turtles. The only sound that made the scene live was the river’s flow – elegant, smooth, and shimmering.
The bride, in her white Pharaonic dress embroidered with blue, red, oranges, and yellow jewellery across the chest, felt a terrible headache. The crown on her head weighted as if it were ten tons, making it too difficult to think and impossible to make any wishes. She felt the blood in her small head trapped and squeezed inside her veins. For a moment or two, only two wishes lingered in her mind, and were on the tip of her tongue, ready to escape her lips, if she hadn’t sealedthem shut just in time. For the wish she’d make if she survived, she wanted so much to push the king into the river, wearing the same crown to see whether he would make it out alive. And for her wish if she didn’t survive, she prayed the king would have the honour of diving into the sacred river himself to retrieve the holy crown without any blessings, without assistance.
The bride glanced at the king, but his stern, hard gaze warned her that she was running out of time, and he was on the verge of losing his patience. Did he read her mind? She swallowed hard and forced a smile.
”I have no wishes, Your Highness, other than to wish you a prosperous afterlife in the great pyramid,’ she replied and jumped into the river.
The bride survived and the king was buried in the great pyramid.
Of course, this story is purely fictional — I made it all up. You can think of it as one of April Fool’s Day pranks. And, to be more honest, I have no idea if the legend of the Nile Bride is related to the month of April.
With hope and peace,
Nahla
Pure and Simple 