Rainmaas
Rainmaas is a New Voxelian) holiday celebrating the brief late summer monsoon season that fills Medial A farmland with moisture and nutrients.
History
Normally, during the summertime, the Medial A cube layer is too warm for consistent precipitation, the atmospheric moisture remaining as humidity throughout the day except when it becomes dew in the early morning hours. Late in the summer months, however, the weather becomes warm enough for some of the extremely humid air from Western C (with its layer-spanning ocean) to cross the inflection layer into Medial A. This process over-saturates the air in Medial A with moisture. Once night falls, the air can no longer contain so much water, and the moisture condenses into thick cloud cover, rain, and rolling banks of mountain fog. As a result of this atmospheric cycle, festivals broadly similar to Rainmaas have been celebrated in Voxelian agricultural communities since all the way back to the beginning of recorded history.
Execution
The heat and humidity of the late summer months caused food in Medial A to spoil quickly before the advent of modern refrigeration. Because of this, Rainmaas is a period of feasting to make room in the household stores for the fresh produce the rains will grow. Offerings to the House of the Unexpected are made by church parishioners during this time as a nod to the ancient fear that, in a fit of pique regarding 'fair-weather Unexpectors,' the Gods of Irony might decide to abolish the land-rejuvenating rains and plunge the land into famine.
Components and tools
Rainmaas feasts are potlucks which typically include a variety of baked goods, as the moisture in the air is apt to make these items spoil first. Various pickles, preserves, smoked meats, and cheeses are also common feast fare. Each year, Chateau Blueberry prepares a seasonal blueberry mead for release around the time of Rainmaas, a marketing strategy which has made the Chateau's products synonymous with Rainmaas nostalgia in the minds of many Voxelians.
Observance
Rainmaas is a three-day work holiday which takes place at the beginning of the last month of summer. Rainmaas is a state holiday in Voxelia, but New Voxelians throughout the Manifold (i.e. in the Manifold Conservation Society, Free Faces League, and the Commonwealth of C) still celebrate it out of a sense of tradition rather than any ties it might hold to their own local weather patterns.
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