Umaelich

Plants were bursting into bloom all around, with the fruit trees putting on a truly specatacular display. Warm sunshine drenched the lakeside even as the somewhat brisk spring breeze scattered the discarded leaf wrappings of various treats.

Umaelich is a festival celebrated by all the Taesaf as spring comes fully into its own. Colourful flags and banners are hung in the streets and in central courts of homes. Food stalls can be found everywhere; in home courts, outside the usual establishments, and anywhere street vendors can find a suitable spot. Foods with dairy, spring fruit and leafy greens in them are traditional; such as salads with citrus fruits and cheeses or yoghurt dressings, fruit-stuffed pastries, flatbreads or leavened breads stuffed with greens and cheeses or even early potatoes and peas dressed with herbs in years where the spring sunshine comes early.
Work is stopped as much as possible for the day and it's generally perceived as a good reason to laze about with friends outdoors in hopefully good weather. Some of the more actively-minded set up games or friendly competitions.

Traditions

People often give each other small gifts of seedling plants, flowers or dairy foods, such as cheeses, yoghurts or cream. In Chaem the Natural Society gives away many seeds and seedlings of popular and new plant varieties.
Another tradition is to send letters or other communications to Taesaf in other regions than one's own — as a reminder that they are all one folk and have a shared history beyond their current dwellings. These letters can serious and heartfelt expressions of affection, but many have a light tone and contain jokes, a little gentle ribbing at the expense both the receiver and the writer and news about the fickle spring weather.

Official observations

The Tyldamin Triumvirate still observe the traditional purpose of the festival by laying down wreaths of blooming fruit trees and spring flowers at the Verdant Tree in Medloth. Others of a (more or less) official capacity, such as the clan chiefs or elders of Taesaf communities in other countries, will lay a wreath at the entrance of their dwelling or plant a new tree somewhere. The Verdant Tree is said to have been planted in that first spring after the Kynfesan Exodus of the Lomyn; some view these acts more as a memorial to the Exodus and others more as a confirmation that this land is now home.

Origins

The festival's first edition was as a celebration of the coming of spring in a strange new land after the Kynfesan Exodus.

Related Ethnicities

• Taesaf

Weather

As a mid-spring festival, the environment tends to be somewhat fickle. Some years see brilliant sunshine and warm breezes, other years are spent in drenching rain or even, in rare cases in the hills and mountains, a light dusting of snow. This has led to a culture of intense speculation regarding the likely conditions of that year's festival. Writing letters to Taesáf in other regions is a tradition of the holiday and Taesáf who live far from each other tend to take some glee in reporting beautiful weather to those whom they know spent it beneath awnings, and a fair bit of magical effort has been wasted in attempts to significantly influence the weather for the occasion.

Songs and seeds

The most popular imagery used in the Umaelich festival is that of a tree and a songbird. Very often in Tyldamin this tree is supposed to be the Verdant Tree in Medloth, but many communities also depict a local tree that is important to them. The bird varies just as much, but the most popular choices are the laughing dove, the black-headed bunting and, more rarely, the gold-finch. All are strikingly pretty birds with a lovely song and usually depicted as perched in the topmost branches of the tree. Sometimes multiple birds sit in the tree or there are a few searching for seeds at the roots.
Depictions of the bird and the tree are embroiderd onto banners and flags, painted onto streets, carved or sculpted into little statues or baked into pottery and pretty much whatever else one can imagine. There are rhymes and songs about the two and some places organise a "seed hunt" for children - usually this is a hunt for fruits where they receive clues for locations where someone poses them a riddle or they have to recite one of the rhymes or songs in return for their treasured "seeds".