Ahdistaa
In the archaic calendar of the Vinland tribes in the 2nd Age of Illuria:
Components and tools
Celebrants made new clothing for themselves in the brightest glossy white (to represent sunlit clouds) or darkest matte black (to represent the void of space) that they could manage. On the day of the celebration, they took pains to bathe themselves thoroughly and get completely dry before they donned their celebratory garments. Each celebrant owned a matched pair of naturally colored stones, sometimes polished but always the same size. The red stone would be snugly tied by cord to the right wrist (or, in some settlements, right ankle) of the celebrant on the fifth year and the left wrist (or, in some settlements, left ankle) of the celebrant on the eleventh year, the green stone mirroring it on the opposite limb.
Outdoor altars and bicolored candles (sometimes sheltered in lanterns) set the stage for a regimented performance that included prayers for the afterlife of lost loved ones as well as commitments to future good works.
Participants
Historical accounts of the exact events tend to be vague: Every celebrant presumed that these rituals were already familiar to anyone and everyone who might read the accounts. Some conducted their day-greeting ceremonies alone or in intimate groups; others joined neighbors, the congregation of their preferred organized religious faith, or perhaps the conglomeration of most citizens in their social network. No status appears to have gained preference or prestige between solitary observers and social observers. Old tales that describe Ahdistaa ceremonies in groups hint at a responsible figure who led the rites. Sometimes this was a priest; other times, a skald set the pace of the chants.
Every medium-sized distinct population had its own myth of the rite having been led by one of the "Elders" in person. While the myth always contains a related cultural event regarding which the specified Divinity had reason to take personal interest, none of these myths adequately explain where a God would direct their own prayers.
Observance
Intercalary holiday that occurred every fifth and eleventh year in a recurring set of eleven. It took place when a specific double-lunar phase coincided within five days of the northern hemisphere's summer solstice. On the fifth year's occurrence, the green moon (beginning its "new" phase) begins to set on the western horizon immediately after the last sliver of the sun vanishes, while the red moon (beginning its "full" phase) begins to rise from the eastern horizon at the same apparent speed. On the eleventh year's occurrence, the same pattern holds true at sunset but in reverse, with the red moon following the sun as the green moon rises to illuminate the night sky.
These two extra days helped to synchronize the calendar with the astronomical and seasonal year, along with other intercalary days observed in more cheerful festivals. The combined effect of the two Ahdistaa holy days was said to "reset the pattern of time" once the rising moon had completely cleared the horizon -- generally an hour after the beginning of astronomical twilight.
Celebrants also believed that these two special days allowed the "material world" or "world of mortals" to exchange air with the "Summerlands", or afterlife of the deceased. Scholars suspect that this myth came from a sudden, severe temperature inversion that plagued the region during the early First Age of Illuria. Stagnant air bubbles would have been unusual but devastating to nomads and settled folk alike. The archaeological record supports a theory that a widespread summertime inversion smothered entire forested regions across Vinland.
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