Call of the Chicken

Its Chicken Time!

"You know how it gets this time of the year. Everyone is running around like-"

"Don't say it!"

"... a headless chicken."

— the precise moment a conversation became a fight

A Popular Festival

Every year, around the beginning of the winter, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, the village of Humperdeen takes a week to hold their biggest celebration: "Call of the Chicken". The festivities are accompanied of singing and dancing, eating and carousing. Friendships are made, and broken, and renewed once more, and everyone looses themselves in the spirit of freedom and joy.

The citizens of Humperdeen hold an "all is welcome" policy, where everyone from any place is invited to celebrate this wonderful time of the year! But because Humperdeen is a small town, it rarely attracts more than a dozen tourists, and few beyond its valley know of the festival's existence.

"Our festival is so much fun, people never feel like leaving once its over!"

— Mayor McDonald

Song of the Chicken

The first and most exciting part of the festival is what Humperdeeners call "the Song". As the celebrations start, so does a faint chorus of mysterious voices. It echoes through the valley, often confusing visitors. Any questions they might have is answered by a shrug and a smile, and they quickly learn not to ask for more answers.

As the week moves forward and the festival grows in intensity, so do the voices. The progression often leaves the uninitiated lost in a maddening spiral, as the choral echoes in their head, louder and louder and louder and louder.

M- m- make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!

— Celebrating tourist

End of the Festivities

It is hard to describe what exactly happens during the final 24 hours of the festival. The village erupts in frenzy and chaos, as it celebrates its new members. A final ceremony takes place: "the Chickening". The agonising tourists are taken within a nearby sanctuary, where they are presented to [UNINTELLIGIBLE] for their christening.

On the dawn of the 8th day, the villagers emerge, and regain their houses. There are always enough abodes in village of Humperdeen, always ready to embrace new citizens. All await excitedly the next festival, and the new citizens it will bring.

Did you know?

No chickens are harmed during the festival! It so happens that the population of Humperdeen subsides on an entirely vegan diet. As a matter of fact, you probably won't see a single chicken during the entire festival!

by gryffyn m

Mysterious Origins

No one in the village seems to recall when or why the festival started. Curious tourists quickly find out it is a sensitive subject, and they do not keep asking questions for long. After all, the Call is not a time of worry, but a time of rejoicing and celebration!

Yet this does not stop some from digging deeper. Dedicated searchers outside the village thirst for an explanation to the strange magnetic pull Humperdeen seems to have. Why does no one ever leave? What of the citizens strange attitude? The screams that echo in the valley, the bizarre tales of survivors?

These questions know no answers.