Rite of Rebirth
The rite of rebirth is an important ritual in many dryad cultures. It is held after a dryads death and often involves the steps needed to replant a seedling of the dryad who died. The exact steps and components of this ritual are usually not the same in each ethnic group or ancestry of dryads.
This ritual is a way for the dryads to grief the death of their companion, friend or partner and at the same time celebrate the creation of new life. The newly born dryad is not truly reborn, but might share some vague memories and traits with their predecessors. The ritual takes place over many days as the event is usually very rare. When a entire forest is cut or burned down and dozens if not hundreds of dryads die then the ritual is combined by the survivors if there are any. In most cases this is caused by humans trying to clear a forest for other uses or to get rid of the dryads.
Common Components
The most important component of this ritual is always a seed that carries the dryads heritage. Not all seeds do and those that do not will just grow to an ordinary tree. From all of the seeds that carry the dryads heritage one or a few are chosen to be reborn as the predecessor. The rest are either sent off, stored away, discarded or replanted without the ritual. The seeds that are to carry on the heritage are infused with the stories about their predecessor. This story telling is not done always the same way. In some communities all the members tell a story, sometimes only those closest to the dryad tell stories and some communities have a specific dryad with the role to collect these stories and then tell them. In a few cases dryads have asked druids to tell the stories for a very important or revered dryad who had died. This act is supposed to feed the predecessors experiences into the new dryad so that they may learn from them. The last common component is the planting of the new tree in a favorable location for the new tree to grow. Where this is varies greatly between tree ancestries and dryad cultures.Uncommon Component
A very uncommon component that is mostly used in fruit bearing tree ancestries is the consumption of a specific food. This food is almost always involves the last harvest of the dryads tree to consume their essence. In the case of the Olive Tree Dryads this special food is a savory olive foccacia that is made from white flour, olive oil, olives, dried tomatoes. This is very uncommon for any other dryads because they do not commonly eat human food like this. The tradition came about as humans became involved in the ritual and had to eat something. Today the act of consuming the last harvest is seen as a way to honour the departed dryad and their tree.
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