Cat Holidays – Are they real?
Cat holidays were celebrated with parades and revelry in the streets. Household cats were adorned with jeweled collars and earrings. Killing a cat became a crime punishable by death.
When a cat died it was embalmed, wrapped in burial cloths and buried in a special cat cemetery. Especially solicitous cat owners even embalmed a few mice so that Mau would not go hungry on her journey to the afterworld.
Cemeteries discovered by archeologists in the nineteenth century were found to contain hundreds of thousands of cat mummies. And this being a practical era, the mummies were promptly sold by the ton for use as fertilizer.
The Egyptians’ excessive admiration for the cat eventually played a part in Egypt’s downfall. It is said that when the Persian king, Cambyses, the son of Cyrus the Great, was besieging Pelusium in his classic invasion of Egypt, he threw live cats over the wall of the city. This heartless hailstorm of sacred mousers sent the Egyptians into a panic, and while they were distracted and unnerved their stronghold was overrun. For more facts visit Affordable Pet Insurance
