''-Rejoice, brother! For Our Lord Itsarau will come to us this very night! Aren't you happy to be alive? To have the chance to see him?
-Oh yeah, suuuuure, sure it's that and not the dancers what make me look forward to tonight...''
Arguably the most important ceremony in the 18000 day long calendar used by the Ikaharinese, the Onan Balei is a festival devoted to the comet Itsarau. It also serves to mark the end of one cycle and the beginning of the next.
What is being celebrated?
''-Can we go and listen to that ambaliori?
-Not a chance I'm wasting two hours listening to an old man ramble in verse! You should know time is rather precious today.
-But he's going to talk about the Star Gazer and his deeds! He is my god! His face is literally the first thing I see every morning!
-Ugh, why are little girls so annoying?
-You know what I'm going to say...
-Oh please no! I don't want to receive another lecture on metaphysics by a 12 year old. But ok, I guess we can go. But I swear this is the last boring thing you make me do today''.
Empirically speaking, this festivity celebrates the passing of comet Itsarau through the night sky. This event is also what marks the end of a cycle in the Neinnarin, the Onan Balei thus serving as a sort of 'New Year' ceremony.
However, any remotely religious person would tell you that what is being celebrated is the appearance of Itsarau, who only lets himself be seen my humanity in this occasion. Furthermore, they would say, he can only be seen in this moment due to what happened in his mythos.
Itsarau's War
''
