Sunekan Calendar

This is the calendar used by the Sunekan religion.

The year cycles through a number of ritual-festival phases.
The First Fallow, from the winter solstice to spring equinox, is a period in which holidays are more sparse and the emotion of holidays is more quiet and restrained. The idea is that the new year is building spiritual energy and momentum, with comparisons to a fallow field during crop rotation. The big exception to this is Yepicha in February, which is a joyous cotton harvest festival intended to begin the ramping up of emotion heading towards the next phase
The First Festival Season, from the spring equinox to the summer solstice, is a period where holidays become more frequent and intense. While only the big unifying holidays are marked on this calendar, this is a time when smaller cults of warmth, fertility, or abundance enter the festival calendar. This is a period of intense agricultural importance in the Sunekan Heartlands: it is when the winter crops are being harvested, and the summer crops are being planted.
The Second Fallow, from the summer solstice to the autumn equinox, is a period with much of the same logic and tempo of the first fallow. It even has a sister cotton festival to Yepicha, the Tipicha cotton and spinning festival in August, which serves the same purpose as Yepicha in the calendar.
The Second Festival Season, from the autumn equinox to the winter solstice, is the mirror of the first festival season, but with new cults and new spirits. The expansion of the Suneka has introduced the idea of winter as a time of death, a concept that synergized well with the winter solstice having a ritual commemoration of an escape from the underworld - so this season has grown to include war, herd animal, and death related cults that are newer (though older ones tend to be in spring, the traditional war-death season).
All of these phases hinge on the four most important holidays: the Four Seasonal Festivals at the winter, summer, spring, and autumn solstices (March, June, September, December). These seasonal festivals tend to be the most elaborate and are the most likely times for any Sunekan to make a pilgrimmage or festival journey to a city or temple area; religious complexes often are structured to emphasize the equinoxes and solstices, and were historically the big seasonal ritual sites. With paper calendars and timekeeping, physical astronomically-built structures don't hold quite the same timekeeping power, but they do still have a strong cultural meaning.

Holidays

This is the Holiday text from the calendar

First Festival Season

January, None
February, Yepicha: Yepicha is the first holiday of the new year, and is both an agricultural and religious holiday. As a religious holiday, Yepicha is the day of beginnings and creations. Stories of origins are told, and seed-foods are made such as poppy-seed-buns and sunflower rolls to symbolize the spirits who planted the first people as seeds of bone, wood, and stone. Political origin stories are also told, such as those of the Spiritual Empire, Yezok the Lawgiver, Amati the unifying tyrant, and the first Holkara. Republics often sponsor tellings of their own stories and narratives on this day as well.
As an agricultural festival, this is the day of autumn-winter cotton harvesting and spring-summer cotton planting. Much emphasis is placed not just on the harvest, but on the threshing, spinning, and weaving of cotton. Great cotton spins are held in the towns and cities, and master tailors compete to display their greatest works of textile art.
On this day, there is work and there is feasting. Beer, chicha, and pulque are the ceremonial drinks of the day. Priests lead a procession of cotton threshers, and entertainers often are hired to entertain the people in renditions of origin stories.
This is a floating holiday, always 30 days prior to the Spring Equinox.
March, Baxatli: Baxatli is the Spring Equinox holiday, and is one of the four holy seasonal holidays that structure the annual calendar. This is a big ritual holiday dedicated to the Springtime Gods of fertility, change, and war. Hokzin the Sacred Lion and Yamati the Tree of Life are the two most prominent spirits worshipped during Baxatli, and their symbolism is actively mixed.
One of the most flamboyant parts of Baxatli is 'Taking the Center': a celebration in towns, villages, and temples where central community points are contested in mock battle. "Combatants" dress in over-large pants and hats, parodying and exaggerating war-gender. Rather than fight, they dance. Those who do not dance act as judges, calling out to the priest their consensus on who won the dance-off. Whichever team ends up "ruling the center" gets to lead all teams in a dance to Hokzin the Protector Lion.
Tied to the final dance performance of the Center is the whipping of the Earth. A hole is dug near the sacred center, where the dancers will circle with whips, striking the Earth and calling out for disorder to emerge. Some communities even have someone play "disorder" in costume, to be lightly beaten and dominated by the community.
There is also the sacrifice to the earth, where food animals are sacrificed for feasting and their blood is drained to be fed to a designated ritual tree in the ritual center. The pouring of blood into the roots, often mixed with the ash of other sacrifices, is a mix of Yamati and Hokzin cult - the enriching of the soil by a gift of blood, the circle of life in action.
While blood is given to the tree, another acolyte goes to the tallest hill or building to give a small sacrifice of alcohol and herbs thrown into a fire - the alcohol to Yukia, the Rain spirit, the herbs to Gyin, the Sun spirit. The idea is that the blood connects the community to the deep earth, while the smoke connects the community upwards - there is a moment of deep connection there, when all the world is united through mutual exchange.
April, Tlasotin: The winter crop harvest festival of the Sunekan heartlands. Also a spring spirit holiday, tied into spirits and places associated with the harvest, war, hunting, and smithing. More than the autumn harvest, this spring harvest is a war on chaos, using ordered and harmonious force to turn foodstuff into food. Tlasotin was, in ancient times, a holiday that involved martial training for the whole community; it was a day where everyone came together and reaffirmed their martial loyalty and sufficient arms stockpiles, led by the Holkara elite warrior societies. Now, the martial elements remain prominent but are much more specialized. The smithing and crafting elements have also been played up; this is very much a time of honoring craftspeople as well as warriors.
Martial rituals of territorial control and purging chaos are still very embedded into this harvest festival. Small groups of youth parade with ceremonial spears and staves, calling out to the spirits at four corners on their settlement periphery. These groups, having marked the territory, are then deployed as work teams to assist the harvest over the next few days.
Feasting is, of course, a notable part of Tlasotin. There is a grand feast, but also there is much drinking and sharing of food between the floating labor teams mobilized for the harvest.
A potential part of Tlasotin is public shaming; there are some traditions of communities dragging forth members accused of deviance or wrongdoing and reckoning with internal disputes. This doesn't always happen, though.
Honoring Hokzin the Protector Lion is naturally a part of this, but not the only part. Tetzin the mountain, Rubeta the Clay spirit, Rukti the iron spirit, Kata the Craftsperson-Octopus, and Nuxima the huntress are all spirits that can be honored during this festival. More consistent than who is honored is where is honored - this is a time of honoring mines and honoring forests, places of hunting and of metal.
May, Tonabet: Tonabet is the springtime planting festival of the Sunekan Heartlands, ensuring that crops will be ready by October. Beyond that, it is also a spiritual festival celebrating water, children/maternity, purification, growth, and fertility. This is also called the Bird Festival, as its most visible costumes and decorations are relating to birds. Bird spirits of all kinds are honored, from the great Crow Chiun to the lesser finch spirit. But it is not just the birds being honored; it is the heaven and fresh-water spirits! While the birds may get the decorations, it is the clouds, sun, rain, wind, rivers, and springs that are seen as some of the most powerful forces here. The weather and cloud patterns that occur during Tonabet are considered omens to some mystics.
Part of the reason why birds are the visual vehicle of this holiday is because they are messengers to the heavens and carriers of seeds - and seeds are often seen as the basis for all life (not to mention the thematic climax of May as the month of seed planting for many). The Seed Dance is a particularly important community ritual, in which a handful of sacred seeds are blessed (and serve as conduits to bless all seeds planted this month). The Seed Dance is conducted by the community priests and leaders, though all people of status are expected to do some dancing and singing. Seed-studded treats and baked goods are also big at this festival.
Rituals of purification and blessing also take place at the local springs and waterways.
June, Zozla: The Summer Holiday, one of the four sacred days. Always on the summer solstice. Tends to center around sacred sites or community centers such as town/village/city plazas. Summer spirits and creatures are celebrated at this festival. Particularly big are the spirits Ozotl (healing snake spirit) and Tsirik (change and strength horse spirit).
The big event of the day is the flower dance, a great community song and dance spectacle in the major plazas intended to create a sense of unity.
Healing ceremonies and moments of mystical healing are popular on this day. Priests often wear snake or mosquito masks, and acolytes or entertainers often wear masks intended to exaggerate either features of illness or anguish or of joy and health. Eating roasted or ashes of serpents is common as a healing practice; when afforded, this is consumed with Kilusha. In general, this is a big day for Kilusha distribution, sale, or exchange.

Second Festival Season

July, None
August, Tlipicha: The second cotton festival, the counterpart to Yepicha. It is always 30 days before Sipatli. As a religious holiday, Tipicha is about rebirth, renewal, return, and redemption - it is a time for spiritual rebirth and social return for those who have erred and repented. Spirits of renewal and rebirth are honored on this day, from Ozotl the snake to the transformative butterfly and the frog. This is also a time when places of renewal, notably fields, forests, and meadows, are spiritually honored.
As a social holiday, Tipicha is about crafts and trading, as well as spinning and cotton threshing. It is an agricultural cotton festival, though there is an emphasis on preparing textiles for the eventual winter. This has evolved into a general craft festival, where people sell and exchange and make deals. Some places do craft blessings on this day, where mystics bless specific items in the town or village plaza.
September, Sipatli: The sacred seasonal holiday of autumn, always on the autumnal equinox. One of the four big seasonal holidays. This day is often dedicated to Tonokari, the star-ancestor, and Nukima/Nuxima, the Old Huntress. All autumnal spirits are also celebrated on this day.
Sipatli is the day of giving and purification; to some, it is also the day of penitence and sacrifice. It is a day with solemn and joyful phases alike. Expressions of individuality are particularly shunned on this day.
Sacrifice is a big element of this day, with people surrendering what they do not need to the community - the flimsy boundary between the household and the community vanishes entirely on this day. Communities sacrifice food and beer to the spirits; a quarter given to the waters, a quarter to the skies, a quarter to the earth, and a quarter to the animals and plants. This four-fold sacrificial procession is during the first part of the day, which is a time of fasting. In a display that frightens some foreigners, elites often give small sacrifices of their own blood, skin, or suffering in front of the community - legitimizing their own leadership by acting as stand-ins for community suffering.
The night is a time of feasting, though. Landlords and communities begin fresh brewing, and drink heartily of the old stock. It is the Fourfold Feast: meat, leaf, bread, and stone, with forms of all four that are edible to all parties. All eat a piece of the four forms. People often decorate a single limb for this feast, part of the quarters theme.
October, Nuxabex: Nuxabex is the Summer crop harvest festival, and the day of the ancient things. Spirits of time and times gone are honored, and the day has elements of ancestor worship. Nuxabex is a day of age groupings and age hierarchies; children play games, elders are honored, adults affirm their status through shared songs and hymns. Feasts are held, where the eldest are given the first and finest foods and the ancestral honored dead are given ceremonial seating and sacrificial meals. Ghosts, if they are present in the community, are welcomed from their places of honor to join the living as guests. Priests are also given special positions of privilege for this holiday.
Ancient places are sacred on this day; old stone formations, particularly ancient trees, and old ruins are all centers of worship.
November, Tokatli: This is the winter crop planting festival, and also the holiday of exchange, movement, migrating animals, and transformation. There is a celebration of merchants, newcomers, and traded things on this day, within the confines of Sunekan culture. This is the day of Sunekan cross-community togetherness, with exchange of people between towns and villages helping one another with planting, crafting, and community building repairs. Feasts on this day prominently feature foods and drink created elsewhere.
Ceremonies on this day focus on the wind, the caverns, and the deep water, as well as on gates and doorways. Birds captured in other communities (often mountain birds in lowlands and visa versa) are often sacrificed and eaten, with feathers buried in local soil. This is a kind of ceremonial exchange of food, feeding the local soil with food unusual food.
December, Umzil: The Sunekan new year and winter holiday. Always on the winter solstice. One of the four major seasonal holidays. Very big with the cults of Olkum the Fox and Tetzin the First Stone. A day of revelry, renewal, and community gathering. Olkum acolytes graduate this day, running with torches and leading the youth in touring the countryside - re-enacting Olkum's retrieval of fire from the underworld, and the bones of the first people. Circular sweets are eaten this day, to celebrate the turning of the year. Clay tokens are sacrificed to kilns and hearths, in the name of Tetzin.