Festival

What is Festival?

That is a surprisingly complex question to answer and one that requires some historical context, however in essence it is a three-week long celebration centered around Aempyre, the single moon.

Calendar

As you should be aware, the calendar most of Aeon follows was adopted after the Flare  . Whilst it retained the structure of the old calendar, that being 12 months of 30 days each with an intercalary period of 15 days at the midpoint, the months were renamed to simultaneously celebrate the heroes who had saved Aeon and forget the enemies who had endangered it.

The standard week also remained as 5 days long and so the intercalary period of 15 days spans three weeks, which is the time frame we are examining; Festival.

Veneration

Centuries before the Flare, in a time when Gods interacted more directly with their creations, this three week period was called 'Veneration', a none-too-subtle decree to the populace that this period of time was to be used in exaltation of the deities.

There is insufficent documentation of the era from which an accurate depiction of the detailed ceremonies and celebrations may be presented, however what is clear is the importance of Aempyre to the proceedings.

Then, as now, the moon dominated the sky for the entire period, becoming completely full for the middle of the three weeks. An interesting detail which is not true today is that Aempyre was always large and looming overhead regardless of time of day and geographical location.

This is of course a physical impossibility and would suggest some form of 'divine manipulation'.

It is entirely reasonable to conclude that the ever present, ever watchful moon was the focus of those early Veneration celebrations given the prevailing belief it was the seat of the Gods; one would wish to ensure one's sycophantic gestures of faith were clearly visible.

Of course the 'God Eye in the Sky' would be construed as a comfort to those of faith and oppressive by sceptics and over time the importance of the moon waxed and waned. Certainly by the time of The Flare the latter was in the ascendancy, and solidified when The Flare itself fell in a fiery river from Aempyre and struck the Twin Towers.

Celebration

The cataclysm effectively ended the 'Divine Hearth Concept' of Aempyre with one important caveat; Leigha, and the other intermediate Gods to a lesser extent, is still very much in favour by many mortals given the belief she sacrificed her consciousness to save Aeon, and in this respect Aempyre is viewed sympathetically as her place of slumber, the place where all the Gods rest.

Though it does still wax to full for the second week, it no longer is seen to loom over every part of Aeon simultaneously for the duration of Festival and has thus lost a degree of significance to the festivities.

Thus we come to the contemporary use of the 15 days, a time to celebrate survival. It was renamed together with the 12 standard months, with 'Festival' becoming the rather generic yet more apt designation.

Races, nations, cities, villages, organisations and individuals are all free to celebrate life in their own way, or not at all.

Diverse Expression - Sulatas

The city of Sulatas officially celebrates the sacrifice of Leigha and divides Festival into three week-long sections.

The first week is dedicated to The Sodality of Leigha, nominally representing both hands of Leigha. Traditionally the students of the College of Alteration head into the city and help the least fortunate whilst practicing their Wielding skills. Officially called the Covenant of Amelioration, the populace colloquially call it the Tenderfoot Walk.

The second week, the apex of the celebrations with the moon full in the sky, is given to The Fellowship of the Open Palm. With the moon at it's zenith the Veil is particularly potent and as such the Priests use this week to concentrate their healing efforts on the most gravely ill, with some astounding results. The Priests named this week Leigha's Bequest and that has fallen into general use.

The third week, known as Festival's Flair, is given over to the populace of Sulatas as a gift from the Basileis, with entertainment provided all week long and culminating in the Solisday Cavalcade which starts at the castle and travels the length of Illuminated Avenue. Along the way the colouful and lively procession swells in size as participants join the festivities from side streets. By the time it flows into Unity Square and pulls up at the Assembly dome there is barely a cobble to be seen.

One of the most significant events of Festival is reserved for this moment. Here the Basileis discharge one of their most sacred duties, memorialising those who perished with the Flare  and rededicating the Eternal Knot of Elements within the Sepulchre of the Flare Fallen.

Sombre proceedings completed, the Basileis herald the end of Festival by hosting a lavish banquet for the populace capped by a Moonburst display of cascading lights, undulating energy ribbons and illusory creatures frolicking through the moonlight night sky.

Diverse Expression - Monument and Silverspire

The Dwarven cities of Monument and Silverspire do things a little differently, with the first week dedicated to their follicle-festival, a celebration of hair from head to toe! Dwarves take their hair very seriously and the competition is stiff, as are many of the... imaginatively styled submissions!

There are only two things a Dwarf takes more seriously than their hair and the second week is given over to one of these: the clan Brawndrogher . The competition to find the strongest, largest, hungriest, most garishly decorated, most rock-like, horniest, as in horns, from the head, pointy, and so forth is extraordinarly fierce and completely at odds with the mellow disposition of the beasts in question. I am enthralled by this tradition as it inevitably ends in some form of mass physical altercation. It is interesting to note the Week of the Brawnies comes immediately before the only thing taken more seriously than the beasts or hair; alcohol.

This cannot be a coincidence, as beer, ale, spirits, brews and occasionally a rare Grinning Imp unite Dwarves, and I do mean ordinary individual Dwarves rather than the broader society, that alcohol unites them like nothing else. Oh one may eulogise in lofty language about honour, sacrifice and noble souls but these are nebulous concepts fragile to the gracelessness of interpretation; a gut full of grog, a bar fight and more alcohol in reconciliation is as tangible a shared experience as one can get, in peacetime at least.

And so the third week of Festival is dedicated to alcohol. That is it, alcohol. It is a five day long drinking spree designed to 'wash the slate clean and drown the past', as a Dwarven friend once told me. Past squabbles and arguments should be set aside, burdensome secrets should be shared, inhibitions cast aside and personal growth explored.

I hasten to add this is a week purely for the adults, the young are gathered in communal crèches after the Week of the Brawnies and tended by elder kin who feel no draw to partake of the final celebrations.

Festival Festivals

With two examples I hope to have cast some illumination on this... peculiar time of year, that in fact Festival is as broad as the species that have found their own ways of claiming the time.

Ultimately it evolved from a symbol of the Gods to a symbol of mortal life; that passionate need to thumb ones nose at Death and scream, 'I survived another year!'

Iaro Gaunt

Definitions of Festival

• A three-week long intercalary period in the middle of the calendar year.
• A three-week long celebration of life.
• A celebration and remembrance of Leigha and her sacrifice.
• A recognition of the moon Aempyre and the influence it exerts.

Examples of Celebrations

Sulatas

• Covenant of Amelioration or colloquially known as The Tenderfoot Walk
• Leigha's Bequest
• Festival's Flair

Monument & Silverspire

• Follicle Festival
• Week of the Brawnies
• Dwarven Courage