animamods | Customs and Festivals

(NOTE: This is a newish entry, and more text will be added as it is written up.)

Festival of Words
Time Frame: Early Spring (March 22nd-25th)
History/Context:
The Words is a spring holiday that commemorates the first expeditions outside the city, and honors the god of travels and stories, Mithrin. It stretches out for four days, each one said to reflect one of the winds. Typically the festivities occur from sunrise to sunset and anywhere one can get a good view of the open sky, with people leaving the streets as the fickle new winds typically bring in storms. Even then, windows are usually left open to the sky, and people try to avoid any rain that splashes in. The holiday is stepped in respect for travelers, and hope that they are safe. It is also centered around themes of departures and returns, and a veneration for the knowledge the explorers may find.

Festivities:
Sharing stories and tales is a common past time; whether it is listening to specially trained performers and orators recite stories and records from the past in dedicated squares and gatherings, or holding smaller events and telling personal stories. People are encouraged to share tales, whether it is among friends or strangers.

One of the most popular festivities is kite flying, given the strong winds and breezes that sweep the city. Kites are usually done up to resemble the god, some more avian and some more feline, and can trail streamers where prayers and stories are written down. It’s a common game to have kites joust with the other, and the winner is the one who severs the first paper slip and casts it to the winds.

The other common observance is creating a complicated food dish. There are no hard rules on what sort of dish can be created, but more time consuming dishes are generally preferred. At the end of the festival, the food is divided up into portions; half is set on a tiny boat, with city mages and priests casting a spell of preservation on the food. The other half is kept with the household that created it, and the boats are then cast out of the harbor and into open waters; this shows that those who wander are not forgotten, and hoping they will come back to share in the rest of the food.