Shimmering Solstice
The first day of Heating Summer marks the beginning of Summer all across Edda, and in Magnum Opus specifically, this is a chiefly celebrated event. Three celebrations occur the whole week of the solstice, with the main event in the middle.
The first two days of this week are devoted to Varehøst, which marks the end of the spring farming season with a community harvest followed by a feast with entertainment aplenty. The final two days are Førsthvile, a celebrated time of rest before summer work that is prime time to enjoy some quiet moments of peace.
The middle three days that make up the apex is Shimmering Solstice! Initially a time for divine offerings, it's turned into a three-day exhibition for arts of all kinds including, in true Magnian fashion, merchantry, and plenty of craft sales and deals.
History
The story goes that long ago, before the Giants Seat was anything different, there was a woman who had tragically lost her husband to sickness.
He had been fading for a while, and so she tried to work on his funerary shawl before he passed, but between caring for him and their child, along with the grief before and after his death, she could not bring herself to finish it.
Almost a month after his passing, his shawl was still not completed. Each time she came close to finishing what she felt was the right design, she would be plagued by anxious nightmares of his soul trapped as a hunting dog for eternity, as is the fate of improperly buried kinfolk.
For the people of the Seat, these funerary shawls were indicative of one's life. They could be simple, intricate, literal, or symbolic, but they needed to be proof of one's life and values. So for the woman, she could never feel like her feeble hands could be enough.
Eventually, it got to the point where the body needed to be buried, and her stress was quickly pushing her toward the breaking point. Her mother and mother-in-law agreed to take care of the child for a time so that she could have some peace and quiet to finally finish her work.
But despite that, she still struggled, she still mourned, and she still didn't think she was enough. On the final night of Spring, she was working into the early hours of the morning, when she suddenly passed out from exhaustion.
In her dreams, she was a small finch, following the path of a giant white hawk, with down of every color imaginable. The hawk allowed the finch to rest on its back, but then began to show them a path to fly, which the finch dutifully followed. The woman felt weightless, so far beyond and above each crawling stressor and insecurity.
When her dream as the finch eventually faded, she found herself welcomed by the light of dawn, with a fully completed shawl at her feet. At first thinking someone had misplaced their own, she found her hands rough and dirtied, and that her materials had been used up. This was fully her own work.
Towards the rising sun, she gave a prayer of thanks as tears fell onto her sore hands, as a white hawk let out a cry while flying overhead.
When she returned to the village, her husband was finally put to rest, and while she mourned she didn't feel the overwhelming weight of grief. When asked about what happened, she relayed the story to the village's wise woman, who knew that it was not just a dream she had, it was a blessing from Daggry herself, Goddess of the Dawn, Artistry, and one of many gods who carried souls along with them, the white hawk being her emissary to mortal eyes.
The following year, the woman and the wise woman commemorated the anniversary of this event with a prayer towards the dawning sun. People eventually began to ask what they were doing, and the story was shared once more. Knowing the benevolence of the Dawn Goddess, the townsfolk decided they too would join in the worship of the goddess. Art, offerings, songs, and prayers were shared every hour the sun hung in the sky, and light shimmered in spectral colors through every opening during this momentous day.
The entire year after, the crafters and artisans of the city never had a blocked moment, knowing that the Goddess looked favorably on every act of creation, big and small. Thus did the worship continue, even in the darkest days of Magnum Opus, and thus does the Shimmering Solstice still get celebrated to this day.
Execution
Other than the day of the solstice itself, nothing else is rigidly set in stone. While each city will have their own itinerary, especially for the larger cities, but that's based on their needs rather than any tradition.
Participants
The most important role in all the festival is that of Daggrydotr. As Daggry, goddess of Artistry and the Dawn, was the original benefactor for what would become Shimmering Solstice, each year a woman is chosen to be the Master of Ceremonies for the event, dressed in a rainbow-colored feather cloak and painted with the divine facial markings of Daggry for the full three days.
The chosen Daggrydotr has no prerequisites. There have been years when they've been a young child, an aged matron, and in the modern day sometimes not even a woman, although the title is changed to Daggryson or Daggrykin if this is the case.
Aside from hosting, announcing, and helping judge various events, the Daggrydotr also has two important ceremonies. At dawn on the day of the Solstice, they'll recite a ritual prayer and light a pyre underneath a prismatic lens, allowing a rainbow of light to dance around the stage. Similarly, at dusk, they'll take the final flame of the pyre and perform a ritual dance, snuffing out the light as the sun fades. This is to invite the goddess to see their offerings, and then to gently pave the path for her to return to the divine realm afterward.
In Theogony specifically, throughout the event seven sashes are given out to winners of various judged contests, and those seven are invited to take part in the final dance on the solstice as well. They are the:
- Passionate Red Sash - Dance
- Warming Orange Sash - Culinary Arts
- Glimmering Yellow Sash - Sculpting
- Rejuvenated Green Sash - Woodworking
- Deep Blue Sash - Poetry
- Mysterious Indigo Sash - Arcanism
- Royal Violet Sash - Painting
Observance
Shimmering Solstice is held every year on the 30th of Greening Spring through the 2nd of Heating Summer throughout all of Magnum Opus. While each city has their own celebrations, Theogony is where the grandest celebration is.
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