Ban Alfen: The Finnish Summer Festival

Every year in Finnaden there is held a grand summer festival. Starting on the solstice, it lasts for an entire week and celebrates the sunshine and a healthy growing season to come. The work day is ended early during Ban Alfen. Around noon, all the workers and craftsmen will turn out of their respective shops to take part in the festivities. Even those who live outside the towns' limits will make the trip to the nearest one for this occasion.
Various booths are set up by the women of each town. Some of them are similar to the booths set up on market day, featuring crafts and early year harvests for sale at reduced prices. Bakers and restaurant owners will have booths set up selling street food and treats. Some stalls will be set up with games to win prizes at, and there is of course the ever popular wool-spinning competition, wherein competitors will sit before large piles of freshly carded wool and must work to spin as much as they can into wool yarn in a set amount of time. Prizes are given for most wool spun and best quality resulting yarn. The most memorable prizes were balls of yarn spun from the wool of Luminese Sheep.
Another important activity during the festival is the making of flower-crowns. They are made from summer-blooming annual flowers. No two crowns are the same; they symbolize individuality and community, each one being a reflection of their maker to an extent. Everyone participates and the wreaths are kept throughout the year.
When the sun finally sets, the town children gather either on the mountainside meadows to lay on the grass and watch the stars, listening to old myths told by the town elders until they fall asleep. On the final evening, a large bonfire is built in the town square and the people ceremonially throw in the dried flower-crowns they'd worn last year while dancing around the flames. The ashes of the fire are cast into the sea the next morning, to symbolically cast away the person you were the previous year.

Observance

Ban Alfen begins at noon on the Summer Solstice and continues until past sundown, and does so every day for an entire week until the final ceremony and flower-burning dance. The spreading of the flower crown ashes on the following morning, while an important part of Ban Alfen festivities, is not technically included in the festival dates.

Related Ethnicities

• Findanite

History

The festival first began as a celebration of their newly-gained independence from the nation of Laspos. Over the years, the festival changed from being one of victory, to one celebrating change and growth, both of the world around them and of themselves.