Festival of Falling Stars

The festival of falling stars is held every nine years when the tears of Oramu are seen falling across the sky. It is a festival about celebrating life, mourning loss, and kindling hope.

It begins with the sighting of the first comet or "tear" shooting across the night sky and ends nine days later. This first comet is the biggest and brightest, and continues slowly across the sky for a full nine days before disappearing beyond the horizon. It is bright enough that it can even be seen faintly during the day.

During the first three days people celebrate the life of those whom they have lost, telling stories in memory of them as if they were still with them. They feast and dance each day as well.

During the next three days they mourn the loss of those same friends and family. They tell stories during this time too, but focus on what the losses have cost them and the pain they feel from missing their loved ones. Those who are healthy and able fast or eat very little throughout this period.

During the final three day they speak of their hopes and dreams for the future. The stories they tell are of how they plan to spend the next years of their life, and how they will share these stories with their loved ones when they meet them again in the next world.

History

Legends say that Oramu's son Bhatair was very fond of mortals and would often visit them in mortal guise. He would travel from place to place and learn the stories of everyone he met on his journeys. After weeks or months spent traveling he would return to Oramu and tell her of all the things he learned during his travels, all the people he met, the new sights, sounds, and food and the stories that the people would tell him. While she didn't have the same passion for mortal folk that her son had, she loved Bhatair very much and delighted in listening to him while he regaled her with story after story.

This went on for many years until one day while traveling through a forest, Bhatair met a traveler stuck under his cart calling for help. Bhatair of course helped him, and the grateful man thanked him profusely and insisted that he be allowed to pay him back in some small way by giving him a meal in his nearby lodge, but the man was a trickster god in disguise and the meal was poisoned. After eating his fill Bhatair fell into a deep sleep and was hidden away by the trickster, and hasn't been seen since.

When Oramu learned of what had happened to her son, she wept for nine days, creating what would be known as the "Tears of Oramu," a flight of comets that shoot across the skies every nine years always preceded by the largest of the comets named "The Beginning of Sorrow," or simply "The Beginning"

Participants

The Trickster
The Wanderer
The Mother
The Searchers

Observance

Every nine years from when the first and biggest tear, known as "The Beginning of Sorrow" is spotted falling across the night sky and for nine days afterwards.