Grand Alignment Festivals
Twice a year Faestra and Ystraia form a conjuction with the sun, lining up perfectly at sunrise, and signally a change of the seasons. Those of fae blood and ancestry recognize this as a time of change between the fae courts, and a powerful time for magics.
Ystraia was broken hearted when her daughter Faestra became the fae queen and departed the golden realm forever. So she searches for her constantly, and twice each year comes close to catching her. But the fae queen is powerful in her own right now, and her mother cannot hold her. The spring brings happy reunions, but the winter can be another matter.
Spring Alignment
In the spring the seelie court takes rule over the feywild and the festival is one of lighthearted games and merriment, wishes for a productive year, fertility in soil and unions. It is an auspicious time for deals in business and marriage. Bonds are strong under the spring alignment, and a promise made can never be broken.
Autumnal Alignment
In the autumn the unseelie court rules again. People unfamiliar with the fae think this is a time of choas, even demon worship (observance has been outlawed in the Holy Ardian Empire) but it's more accurately a time of passion and frightening away the monsters by being monstrous. Children delight in creating grotesque masks to scare away the evil spirits. For this they are rewarded with candied fruit. Paper lanterns are hung from sticks to light a path through the village for a monstrous parade, thus securing it from evil spirits throughout the winter. In larger cities adults have adapted this festival into ornate masquerade balls.
Variations
The phase of the moon and absolute alignment can affect how people view the festival. To most, it's inconsequential, but to those of a supersticious or arcane nature, it can hold many portentious signs. Usually the moon, dawn star, and sun are not perfectly, centrally aligned. When this does happen it is known as a grand conjunction and all magical powers are said to be hightened. Full and new moons are particularly noteworthy as well. A grand conjuction with the moon at it's apogee on the autumnal alignment would bode poor tidings, but be particularly strong for certain magics. It's thought that under such conditions the barries between this world and the shadowlands would be particularly thin, for example. Similarly a grand conjuction with the full moon at it's perigee during a spring alignment would be particularly blessed.
Ystraia's brightness should also be taken into account. The brighter she shines, the closer she is to finally catching Faestra, and the closer she watches her people, guiding and protecting them through the coming seasons.
This isn't to say that mixtures of these aren't equally powerful. The moon at perigee in the autumn, new or full, is still a portentious, important sign. It is for the astrologists to determine exactly what it portends, but one could imagine passions at their height and madness untold.
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