The Threading

It was late on the final day of the Threading when Rain walked in. Daniera, exhausted, and looking forward to a few days off was about to tell the customer the restaurant was closing... for a week... when she recognized her friend.

"Rain! What are you doing here?"

"Visiting you, of course."

Daniera rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm sure you came to Nibikuräk just for me."

"I came for the Threading." Rain didn't mention that she would have come just for Daniera.

"And did you find a man to... thread your needle?"

"I found more than one."

Tailor Sprites believe it is good luck to be born shortly after the first flood of the rainy season, when food and water are at their most abundant, thus they do their best to time the births of their children with this time of year. The Threading is a weeks-long event during the dry season which honors this tradition.

Start with a Bang

"And how has your Threading been?" Rain asked.

"Busy," Daniera replied, and Rain could hear a hint of excitement past the weariness. "I must have made a thousand fish cakes the first night!"

The first night of The Threading is always a grand affair, especially in bigger cities. Inns offer special lovers packages and restaurants serve aphrodisiacs. Though weddings are not common, they are often held on the first day of the Threading or just before. Sometimes when very high-class tailor sprites marry, their wedding is a public event at the start of the holiday. Other events usually begin at sundown, and include competitions, dances, and performances, all of which are designed to help people find their ideal partners. Most events are followed by more loosely structured social gatherings intended for people to meet and solicit one another. Some locations even have side rooms for people to have sex right away.

Weaving Dances

Rain whistled. "I should have come. Nothing beats your fish cakes."

"So what were you doing?"

"I went to a weaving dance."

Daniera snorted. "You're terrible at weaving!"

"I know! It's how I met my first partner."

No Threading is complete without a weaving dance, which gathers men and women together to create a joint web. The number of dancers is usually 10-30, but can range anywhere from half a dozen to over one hundred. Usually, the dancers begin in the center, where the anchor points cross, and connect their silks together. Then they move outward, men in one direction and women in another, dancing in and out of each other's silks. If a man and woman get tangled up together, this is considered a sign that they're meant to be partners.

The dance ends in one of two ways: either the dancers complete the web or some or all of the dancers become so tangled that finishing is impossible. If the web is completed, it is often displayed somewhere, such as being used as the roof of a pavilion until the next Threading. Otherwise (or sometimes, even if the web is complete), it it cut into pieces which attendees can take with them as bedding, should they find suitable partners.

CW: This article talks about sex in a non-explicit manner.

Born out of Season

Tailor sprites who are born during the dry season are considered born out of season. They are considered bad-luck omens and said to put strain on the community at a time when food and water are scarce.

Not Limited to One Partner

While monogamy is not unheard of in tailor sprite society, it is not expected, especially among women. Even Weavers who marry often seen sexual partners outside of their marriages. The same holds true at the Threading, and a woman may sleep with several different men over the course of the festival.

The same does not hold entirely true for men. Though not all tailor sprites adhere to the belief, many believe that once men are only good the first time around. As a result, man have to develop additional strategies for finding partners, such as developing a particular skill and doing well enough in a competition or game that a woman may not care about their sexual history.

The most common strategy, however, is to focus on the first and last days of the Threading. The first days have the largest number of people, and thus the largest chance of finding a woman who doesn't care if her partner has had sex before. Other women may be caught up enough in the moment that they don't care. During the last days, men may hope to find women who have struggled to find a partner and are less picky.

Later Events

"So, what did you think? Of the Threading?"

"It kind of peters out at the end." Daniera heard disappointment in Rain's voice. "I thought maybe there would be some final big event, but I guess everybody just..."

"Goes home? I don't know what else you expected. They get what they come for. They leave."

"You didn't."

Daniera glanced back to the kitchen, where she had spent her last year cooking. "Well, I got what I came for too."

Though the first night of the Threading is the biggest, events are common throughout the first week, and to a lesser degree, during the following weeks. Events held early on during the festival target adults looking for partners. Later events usually target children, providing much needed childcare to those adults who have already found their partners. Childrens events often include weaving classes, musical and storytelling performances, and even the opportunity to learn weaving dances, though in this case, children are told that if they end up tangled with someone else, they are destined to be best friends.

Counter-Culture

"You really don't care about the Threading?"

Daniera shrugged. "I'm a Diving Belle. We just have sex when we want it. That way we don't have to don't have all this pent up energy to release every year."

"Then it must be hard for you, living in the city."

Daniera nodded. "Yeah, I miss the water." She flapped her wings, solid black as usual. "No one here knows how pretty my wings are wet."

Rain swatted at her friend. "I meant the sex!"

"Oh, there are plenty of other people in the city who don't care about the Threading." Daniera leaned in so close to Rain that the other woman's own wings twitched. "You just have to know where to go."

Some tailor sprites do not believe in the taboo of timing the births of children. While the Diving Belles are most famous for this stance, most Fishers and some Jumpers agree it is unnecessary. Some of these groups hold their own festivals on the first night of the Threading, so as not to be left out. Many of these festivals still have weaving dances, and because they are not intended to help people find partners, they are usually true works of art, featuring practiced dancers who weave complicated works of art in concert. The Diving Belles typically ignore the Threading altogether, but hold individual birthday celebrations for their children, unlike other tailor sprites, whose children are all born at the same time.

But being anti-taboo does not make one strictly anti-Threading. Many people from these cultures still attend large Threading festivals because it is still one of the best times to find a partner. Others attend out of curiosity or to participate in events without seeking a partner. Still others have begun underground events within the cities, which explicitly target those who are not looking for partners. These events are usually not directly on festival calendars or may be in difficult to find locations, so those looking should already have some idea of how to find them.