Harvest Day
History
In the past, Lanternfest and Harvest day were both celebrated as one. As there was still a shortage of pretty much everything at that time, that meant less other stuff and more demand for food. And since crops are grown all throughout the year, every month was dedicated to a different type of crops that were harvested each month. A lot was used for the Lanternfest feast, which was one time where people could really eat as much as they could until they were full. Though they have adapted to needing little food while living underground, it was nice to finally be able to eat all they wanted. Most of the rest of the food was sold to people who would store it for the rest of the month. But they would always put aside 10% of all the crops to give to gods in appreciation in hope to ensure their benevolence for the coming month. If they forgot gods, they might punish them by ruining their next month's crops, which would surely cause famine. Glitter God and Satan would use these offerings to give to people throughout the month as a reward for their good deeds.
Harvest Day Today
As years were passing and people started building more and more towns, Harvest Day somewhat lost significance in these towns. Meanwhile in Fairy Gardens, harvest remained the most important part of every month. And so over the years the two became separated, and people in Fairy Gardens traded Lanternfest for Harvest Day. These festivals are still in many ways similar to the original Lanternfest. They still last for 4 days and every month is dedicated to the most important crops of the month. And since the rural areas of Fairy Gardens have more spread out farms that may be quite distant from the town centers, these festivals are still important to people who come here to trade their goods or socialize with new people. And since many of them may not often come to town centers, these days aren’t only dedicated for the main events at town center, but also to shopping in town stores.
Besides trading crops, there are a lot of other traditions that go with Harvest Day. People especially like to play traditional games, such as “toss the corn”, where the contestants toss a corn cob. Whoever tosses it the farthest, gets a prize, which is usually a sack of corn. Depending on the month, there are many similar games dedicated to tossing things, relating to crops harvested in a certain month, and the winner is rewarded with some amount of the crop in question.
Festival Queen and courting traditions
Festival is also important for gathering and socialization of people who may not have had a chance to see each other during the month, and meeting new people. The latter is especially important to young people looking for a partner. Opposite form what some people may believe, people in Fairy Gardens judge incest harshly, and since they spend most of the time living as a family in their farms, Harvest Day festivals are the best chance for young people to meet each other and find partners outside of their own families. Because these festivals happen only once a month, the stakes are high, and young people don’t want to leave anything to chance. Following the pattern of other tossing games, they created their own game called “toss the flowers” in which an already married girl makes a flower bouquet out of seasonal flowers, and tosses it into a crowd of single girls. Whichever girl catches it, is surely to find her future husband in that month’s festival. Similar ritual is performed by boys,, except the festival king is the one who tossed the saif bouquet the farthest. This tradition is usually performed at the beginning of the festival and the girl and boy are titled the festival queen and king. Because of the high promise of marriage, the pair are the most popular among the boys and girls for the following days of the festival. Since the queen and king take a lot of the attention from the other girls and boys, winning this title is a highly desired thing among young people. Once the queen and king are chosen, other boys and girls try to get their attention by doing them small favors or bringing them small gifts throughout the festival. The queen and king then decide which one of the boys or girls they like the most, and if everything goes well, they might find themselves a partner.
While there can only be one festival queen and one festival king, not all boys and girls are worthy of their attention either. And so, these young people came up with their own, unofficial and secret tradition; catch the panties. With all the attention being on the festival queen and king, the other young people, the ones that weren’t found worthy of king’s or queen’s attention, are willing to do more to get each other’s attention. Being eager to fina a partner during these 4 days to avoid having to wait another month for the next festival, these young people are quick to jump into bed with each other. The main purpose of this, of course, is to acquire the partner’s underwear. This is to present to your friends for bragging purposes, but also to ensure the other person will have to contact you later to get their underwear back. If this happens, both people involved try to meet each other but delay the actual return of the underwear, to ensure there will have to be the next meeting. If all goes well, they may stay together and marry.
Harvest day feast and offerings
To this day, the most important event of Harvest Day is the festival feast. The feast starts in the morning of the last day, and lasts all day and late into the night. Alas, today this feast is not free for all as it used to be, but it is a fancy affair where people are willing to pay a lot of money to ensure their place at the feast table. Festival queen, king and their chosen partners are the only ones who get to sit at the feast table for free all day, others may buy a seat for a particular meal (or more) or all day.
All the food for the feast is prepared from the 10% of all harvest that’s set aside as an offering to Glitter God and Satan. People eat as much as they can at the feast, and all the unused food and ingredients are given to Glitter God and Satan as an offering. They then store and distribute these goods among people as they see fit. If they are satisfied with people’s offerings they will bless them with bountiful harvest next month, but those who try to avoid giving a proper offering, may get stricken with misfortune in future.
Same as during Lanternfest in cities, people here also like to use this time to make their personal offerings in temples. A lot of these come from young people hoping to find a partner, and people putting in an extra offering in hopes to have a good harvest next month as well. Of course, people also give offerings for many other personal reasons.
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