Faebol Meal
"May the strength of the trees dwell within you. May this pot never be empty. May this laughter never die. May you live to see the saplings creak with age."When a Bolmor child reaches adulthood - at 16 years old - they are welcomed into adult society with a special meal shared with their extended family and guests. The center piece of the meal is a meat (often lamb, goat, or chicken) cooked in the faebol plant - the meat is wrapped in the four large leaves, and the deep pink berry is roasted on top. The new adult plays a key role in the production of this meal, depending on their gender, and is then the guest of honour at the resulting feast. With the conclusion of the meal, the Bolmor is now free to start a new home, marry, and may find a new job. As the faebol grows only in the Bolmor Forests, the many families who live outside the traditional Bolmor lands must find a way to accommodate the tradition with their children. Some - who live particularly close - will make a special journey back to perform the ritual; in other places it has been possible to cultivate small woods in with the faebol will grow, allowing the ritual to continue (and allowing the new community to join in the ceremony). More recently, families who live in climates where the faebol will not grow have continued only the spirit of this ceremony - using instead some local flora to represent the fact that their children will be growing up in this new land and seeking to live in harmony with it.
History
The preparation and eating of the faebol meal stems from the earliest lives of the Bolmor. In ancient history, when the Bolmor still primarily lived in the trees and in raised villages, reaching the rare faebol flower during a hunting expedition was a sign of great success - and the fruit would be ceremonially eaten in celebration, often cooked with any birds the expedition had caught.
As the Bolmor began to live on the ground and in forest clearings, such daring hunting expeditions were no longer needed, and fell into disuse. However, the tradition remained that each new Bolmor man would be taken on a hunt, and each Bolmor lady would learn how to prepare the faebol meal. This tradition then fused with other coming of age celebrations, such that the new adult demonstrated their skills at the very same meal.
Execution
The faebol grows symbiotically at the top of a variety of trees in the Bolmor forests. Four large, white, flowers blossom on the top of the host tree growing approximately a foot across. On top of this grows a large berry of deep pink hue. The berry is sweet and very juicy, so has long been valued in Bolmor cooking and culture. Where once it was the best possible prize from a hunting expedition, climbing trips are now undertaken specifically to recover the fruit.
The full ritual consists of three parts - though precise execution depends on the gender of the Bolmor who is becoming an adult:
Firstly, the fruit must be collected. The faebol cannot be farmed on the ground, and bigger (and richer) fruits will be found at the top of the tallest trees. Since no Bolmor would take more than they needed from nature, they are almost impossible to buy. Thus, every faebol meal requires a fresh faebol to be collected from the top of a tree. If the new adult is a man, he will go himself - often supported by his father or older brothers. Since the Bolmor have long abandoned their exclusively tree-based existence, the climb will not be as daring as ancient expeditions - ropes, ladders, and climbing nails are all used and encouraged. If the new adult is a lady, a male relative will bring her the faebol instead. This would usually be her father, but an uncle or elder brother would be suitable replacements. While she may be betrothed, and her betrothed may be invited to the feast, it would be improper for her future husband to present the faebol - she is ritually a child until the meal begins.
Secondly, once the faebol is collected, the meal must be prepared. In most respects, this is like any other large meal the Bolmor share - female relatives throughout the extended family will have been cooking (nominally under the direction of the mother) a variety of dishes, and men and young boys will have been busy arranging tables, and preparing for the songs and dances which follow the food. If the new adult is a lady, she now plays her first role by preparing the faebol itself. The leaves are separated from the berry, and used to wrap the large cut of meat which will serve as the centre of the feast. In the earliest days, faebol would be cooked with the animals gathered on the same hunt - but now lamb, goat, or chicken are more common. The wrapped meat is placed in a large pot with root vegetables, and the berry is placed on top to roast with the meat. If the new adult is a man, he hands the flower over with a kiss to his mother, who performs the same (often using the opportunity to show her daughters how to prepare faebol). Then, having just returned from the tallest climb he has ever performed, he will usually be given his first drink of strong mead.
Finally, both men and ladies share the same conclusion to the ritual - the feast. The extended family will gather, and all the side-dishes will be laid out with the new adult in the seat of honour. The mother, supported by adult female relatives will parade in the dish containing the faebol meal to general applause and mirth. The mother will then pronounce the blessing "May the strength of the trees dwell within you. May this pot never be empty. May this laughter never die. May you live to see the saplings creak with age," with the father, and other adults adding later personal blessings. Once this is done, the Bolmor hate boring feasts, so there are no speeches or tedium - the new adult cuts open the meat package, and eats a slice and the whole faebol berry, the family then share cuts of the meat among the honoured guests and extended family. While younger children are always welcomed to these feasts, they do not eat of the faebol dish until it is their time.
Observance
It is common for Bolmor families who live near the traditional forests to return there to allow their children to receive an 'authentic' faebol meal - and any Bolmor community is happy to receive visitors offering to throw a feast in their locale. Other families have a choice to make: to recreate the exact ritual abroad, or to alter it to reflect their new reality.
Anywhere with significant numbers of Bolmor is likely to possess a 'homewood' - a small area of dedicated woodland tended by the expatriate community. It is common for faebol flowers to have been introduced to these trees, as the provision of the faebol is one of the central purposes of the homewood. As the homewood is spiritually part of the great Bolmor forests, rituals performed here are completely equivalent to those in homeland.
However, the faebol will not grow in every climate. While the Bolmor in the far south, north, and east will still plant homewoods of palm, teak, pine, and other native trees, they cannot easily source the faebol. They may choose the expense of travel back to the Bolmor lands, possibly delaying and having one large faebol meal with several adult children (having had smaller coming-of-age feasts in their new homes).
Increasingly, however, expatriate Bolmor are adapting the meal to their new homes. The ritual purpose of the meal is to show the new adult's ability to live in harmony with nature, to introduce them to the habitat, and to celebrate with their community. Expatriate Bolmor reason that, if their nature, habitat, and community are all different to traditional Bolmor, then the meal must be different too. There are no settled rules here, but most families will replicate as much as possible - the fruit will be local, sweet, and somewhat rare, the men will seek it and the women prepare it, and all neighbours (of any species) will be invited to join the feast.
This, naturally, produces a wide variety of dishes and customs - with Tetran meals having a reputation for drunkenness (the animal would likely be goat or pig, the fruit would be one of the species of mountain berry), and Hemhati meals having a reputation as closer to poetry recitals (the animal would likely be lamb or duck, the fruit might be substituted for a coconut, and the blessings would be numerous and long).
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