Iarisday

Every year on the summer solstice, followers of the Faith of the Four Elements celebrate Iarisday. It marks the official start of summer and is the sacred day of Iaris, the personification of fire. On this day, houses and streets are decorated with colourful flowers, and people come together outside in the afternoon and evening to eat, celebrate and dance. Bonfires are lit in celebration of the Element of fire, which is strongly associated with light and warmth in the faith.

However, Iaris is also associated with war and destruction, which is why Iarisday in Eleonis is also a very important day for the military. On this day, retiring soldiers and officers are sent off in all honour, recruits become full soldiers and some can celebrate promotions. Children of noble families, mostly sons but a few daughters as well, choose to join the military at sixteen years old. While the boys are almost always trained to fight from a young age and join the army right away, the girls usually are not and have to go through a year of basic training, before they can join the army proper.

Iarisday is also the day on which fifteen-year-olds from any social background can sign up for basic training. Officers of the eleonian Army will visit different orphanages on this day to pick promising candidates. While these candidates have to option not to accept the offer, many of them do, since a military career promises a roof over ones head, food to eat and a chance to rise through the ranks.

Iarisday is only celebrated in places where the Faith of the Four Elements is still prevalent. In Leanor, that is Urtheon and most of Eleonis, but similar traditions for the summer solstice exist in other places as well.

However, the significance of Iarisday for the military is unique to Eleonis. The kingdom of Lupear has a similar day, but it is held on the sacred day of Theor, the god of war in the acadean pantheon.

The kingdoms of Urtheon and Aguilear are considered less militaristic and do not have a specific day for these things. Neither do the free countries in the east, who do not have a standing military.