Celebration day in the House of the gods.
A friend of mine has asked me how the newly built House of the Gods looked like. Rather than depicting it to him in a factual way, I preferred telling him when I had witnessed the twelve days of feast in the rebaari temples. And I will tell it to you too now.
From the outskirts of Aarden, you can hear already the clamour coming from the city centre. You can see also, the thick, white smoke coming from large bonfires on the hill.
It is a day of celebration today, for all with the rebaari faith; today is the first of the twelve holy days, twelve days for twelve gods.
And today is the day of Paal.
From all around the city, people gather and climb the hill at the centre of the city. The procession passes the High Palace to reach the summit, where the rebaari altars dominate the valley. The House of the gods regroups twelve columns, and twelve altars. Each god has its own column, where devotees bring offerings. At the end of the path, is the main altar, and the twelve-faced column. They bring flowers, they bring bottles of ale, fruits, bags pf grain. At the head of the procession, some are guiding a newborn heaver. It's the main offering of today. A life for the god of death, of course.
Soon, the twelve altars get crowded. People try to climb the twelve columns. But as disrespectful as it seems, the gods are to supreme to mind for a little stone column.
They sing, they cheer, the feast is so loud, hopefully it's enough to catch the attention of Paal. The rebaari just want to show their appreciation to the gods, that's the true purpose of the twelve days, and I think that's quite beautiful. The crowd stretches around the elevated altar, where the young heaver pup is to be sacrified in a minute. From the templar sanatoriums in the far left to the houses of the priest in the right, even behind the altar, almost to the cliff side, the dense crowd tries to catch a glimpse of the slaughter, and to participate in the chants.
But it's when the knife slides on the heaver's throat and life is spilled, that the mob loses it. People yell at the shy, hoping to reach the gods. They launch fruits and pigments in the air. Soon, the dark and white stones of the temple are covered of pink, blue, green and red.
And today is the day of Paal.
From all around the city, people gather and climb the hill at the centre of the city. The procession passes the High Palace to reach the summit, where the rebaari altars dominate the valley. The House of the gods regroups twelve columns, and twelve altars. Each god has its own column, where devotees bring offerings. At the end of the path, is the main altar, and the twelve-faced column. They bring flowers, they bring bottles of ale, fruits, bags pf grain. At the head of the procession, some are guiding a newborn heaver. It's the main offering of today. A life for the god of death, of course.
Soon, the twelve altars get crowded. People try to climb the twelve columns. But as disrespectful as it seems, the gods are to supreme to mind for a little stone column.
They sing, they cheer, the feast is so loud, hopefully it's enough to catch the attention of Paal. The rebaari just want to show their appreciation to the gods, that's the true purpose of the twelve days, and I think that's quite beautiful. The crowd stretches around the elevated altar, where the young heaver pup is to be sacrified in a minute. From the templar sanatoriums in the far left to the houses of the priest in the right, even behind the altar, almost to the cliff side, the dense crowd tries to catch a glimpse of the slaughter, and to participate in the chants.
But it's when the knife slides on the heaver's throat and life is spilled, that the mob loses it. People yell at the shy, hoping to reach the gods. They launch fruits and pigments in the air. Soon, the dark and white stones of the temple are covered of pink, blue, green and red.
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