Jarmas
Jarmas is the late-summer festival dedicated to the preservation (in jars) of fruits and vegetables for storage during the winter months. It is celebrated primarily by halflings of the southern clans.
History
The origins of Jarmas lie with the southern halfling clans, though it is widely observed among all people as far north as the Borderlands and among halfling communities with Southern roots even within parts of the Aquatic Kingdoms and beyond. (Northwestern halfling clans do not celebrate Jarmas, but rather the similar holiday they developed independently around the same time, Cannukah.)
Jarmas is believed to be as old as the southern halfling clans themselves, and demonstrates the central ethos of halfling culture that no member of the community should be left to starve. In the famines of the Age of Anxiety, tribal leaders went from door to door to assess each family's harvest and redistribute excess food to people whose crops had failed. As the years went on, people began bringing the food they could spare to the town larder themselves, as well as sharing the long work of canning and preserving fruits and vegetables for the winter.
Execution
On the first morning of Jarmas, every family with a farm or garden gathers either at the community larder or in the village square, depending on needed capacity. They bring as much of their ripe late-summer produce as they can part with for the clerks to tally up. Everyone helps sort the collected produce by type, while the village clerks determine how many jars each family can take, depending on the size of the harvest that year. Jars are distributed primarily by family size, though people who give extra generously or provide high quality produce are usually allotted a few extra, so long as the harvest that year is plentiful enough.
Once the produce is sorted, everyone in the village is free to take whatever they please to make sauces, jams, pickles, and preserves. Large cauldrons and pickle barrels are set up in the town square for groups to make shared batches if they choose not to use their personal kitchens. Wherever it is safe to do so, doors and windows are typically left open, so that people can travel from house to house to visit, sample, and swap recipes.
A game often played by children during Jarmas is known as the Berry Heist. A group of children race to see who can fill a jam jar with berries stolen from the adult's kitchens. If an adult catches a child stealing, they tap them on the head three times with a wooden spoon, and the child must empty their jar and start over. Whoever fills their jar the fastest is crowned the Prince of Thieves, and gets to order the other children around for the rest of the day.
Components and tools
The jars needed to preserve food for Jarmas are considered communal property. When a jar of sauces, pickles, or jams is finished at any time of year, the family is expected to wash the jar and return it to the community larder (or wherever jars are collected).
Produce is equally important. Stone fruits, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries, okra, zucchini, summer squash, corn, peppers, artichokes, beets, purslane, turnips, green beans, cucumbers, and above all tomatoes are common contributions to the Jarmas pot. Those who do not or cannot provide produce will typically bring ales, cheeses, or baked goods to share during the long wait.
Observance
Except in the event of an unseasonably early cold snap, Jarmas begins on the Tomato Moon in August. Celebrations continue for days or sometimes weeks, until the family or community observing decides the stores are adequately stocked with preserves for the winter.
A larder fully stocked after a successful Jarmas.
Important Locations
Comments