Breadfest

"Smell it! Smell it I tell you! SMELL IT!"

— an overexcited baker on the final day, after too much coffee probably

If there is anything the Bohemians love to consume more than the liquid bread, it is the real thing itself pulled fresh out of the oven. Breadfest is a week long annual festival that happens at the end of Merog, at market places in every town and city in the Bohemian Republic. It is the first big gathering of the year and many people in their homes take the winter as a perfect opportunity to practise their best recipes to show off to others. There are many prizes and activities that people can partake in and winning any of them gives much respect to any household. Many also see this festival as a way to "burn the winter away". By baking. Baking a TON.
It is not only about the bread but other baked goods also tend to get featured, especially if any baker or bakery is trying to introduce something new. Breadfest is the ideal way to show their craft and to attract new customers. However, bread will forever and always hold the first and most important place in the hearts of many, especially as the days of the festival quickly go by.
Besides selling their best wares, there are usually many workshops for someone who wishes to start making their own breads, particularly in bigger towns where people got detached from making their own food at home and often resort to buying the essentials in order to save time. There are usually little workshops for kids as well. The competitions usually revolve around loaf shapes,best nuts and seeds combinations and flour decorations on the breads themselves. Every town does it a little differently.
The best and most sought-after bread however comes from the oven of one man - at least people suspect he's a man - under the pseudonym Liandhel. He is considered to be the best and also the craziest bread maker out there and you can recognise his goods by little imprints of birds on them or on their packaging. For as long as he is in the business, he made it his mission to visit as many Breadfest markets he can, often trudging through heaps of snow and very unpleasant wintery weather, although the ever expanding railway system has made his annual road trips easier as the years go by. Being visited by him and having one of his breads on display during the market is considered the highest of honours to many artisans out there. To taste it is like kissing an angel. Or so they say.