The Festival of Novus

The high noon storms are a time of shelter indoors. As the noon approaches one can see the wall of clouds sweeping in from the western horizon. As the clouds get closer the starts blowing at 45-75 miles per hours. Causing structures to shake and the needle grasses to bend in the breeze. As the storms hit, the wind speeds stays the same but, driving rain and low visibility are added to the mix. In addition as the storms progress, the storms start coming from all directions with different storms coming from different directions at a moments notice. Once the damage is done and the storms pass, it is a time for great celebration. 

The festival of Novus is celebrated in various form by the Nil Yeni people after the passing the high noon storms and the start of the harvest hours. The festival usually starts around 2:30 PM.

History

The time of the high noon storms is a time when most of the fresh stores have run out. All the fresh fruit and vegetables frozen in the night has long since been eaten. The fields have been sown with the next crops but have now just received their rain and and won't be grown for hours more. So the Passing of Novus festival developed as a celebration of the start of the growing season and the safe passing of the storms. The people traditionally focus on creating lots of baked goods filled with store of preserved foods or newly slaughtered animals (jams, canned veggies, meats, etc). Traditionally, Vacdash a drink of foamed goats milk sweetened with fruit jam is served ice cold. Anyone wealthy enough to buy harvested night ice shares it with the community to ensure everyone gets an ice cold drink.

Execution

The festival is a communal feast where all the families of a village get together and share one large feast before they finish planting the crops and repairing the damage caused by the storm.

Components and tools

The feast centers around a Novus Pie. A stuffed pastry that can be up to 1.5 meters across and Easily feed an entire village. The pie is internally divided into internal compartments and filled with different fillings. The pie is put together during the storms at the villages communal baking area. The completed pie is then placed in a ice box with a slab of night ice to keep it cold until the storm ends.