Swallowtail Festival
In the Longgrass Plains along the Warden Road lies the free city of Aquitaine. There, every mid-summer, Aquitaine holds a celebration to the city’s patron deity, Rhea the Lightgiver. This festival honors her and her good works with song, dance, feasting and a releasing of butterflies – which are considered the Children of Rhea and the namesake of the festival: The Swallowtail Festival.
The Swallowtail Festival is not like the Great Fair of the change from spring to summer. Yes, there are pastries. Yes, there are ten different varieties of turkey leg barbecue. Yes indeed, there are once again pork ribs the size of Miro Teague's head! But all pastries are shaped like symbols of Rhea the Lightgiver. The most popular events are the different worship services at sunrise, sunset, and the Holy Blessing of the Well when the sun shines directly down into the cathedral’s sacramental cistern -- when Rhea’s power blesses the holy water for the year’s baptisms.
That said, people are people; and a celebration is, after all, a celebration. Every bed at the Rusty Dragon Inn has been rented out, some locals have rented rooms to guests, and still the overflow area outside the city wall where caravans gather is a cheerful maze of wagons and tents. People sell lanterns painted with swallowtails, or with their lenses tinted to mimic the rays of the sun. Children trade sunburst bead bracelets. Long-established businesses compete for best new creative endeavor for the year: best new recipe, best new dessert, best sculpture, best new textile, best glasswork, best hymn (composition), best hymn (performance), Best Representation of the Children of Rhea.
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